


A Monster's at the Doorstep, It's the Truth

by BetulePendule



Category: Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Awkward Sexual Situations, Bad Jokes, Eventual Smut, Fluff, Forehead Kisses, Friends to Lovers, Handcuffed Together, Happy Ending, Healthy Relationships, Hinata Rolls His Eyes a Lot, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, It Seems like a Dream But It's Not, Kinda Science Fiction I Guess, Komaeda Is a Tease, Komaeda Just Wants to Be Loved, Komaeda Nagito Being Komaeda Nagito, M/M, Masturbation, Post-Neo World Program (Dangan Ronpa), Protectiveness, Sexual Inexperience, Sexual Tension, Slow Build, Smut tags to be added, Switching, Talent Loss, The Author Regrets Nothing, The Author Takes Requests, The Plot Is So Messed Up the Tags Seem to Be Telling Lies, Timeline Shenanigans, Touch-Starved, identity crisis
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2019-09-28 17:32:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 57,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17187320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BetulePendule/pseuds/BetulePendule
Summary: This story starts twelve days after Hajime's awakening from the Neo World Program which was presumably just a simulation, a show to raise awareness of The Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History, an event that took place a century ago. From that moment onward, Hajime and his friends, who have already gotten used to their 'original' talentless lives, keep questioning their identities more and more. As time passes by, they gradually uncover all of the lies they were told.+++Estimated Final Word Count: ~ 200K - 400KEstimated Final Chapter Count: ~ 50+++Basically, it's for those who want a fairly happy Komahina story with a complicated plot... or those who want a complicated story and don't mind smut...I'll be delving deep into the Neo World Program and the way it functions, something that wasn't explained too much in the original game. Thus, I might come up with some controversial conclusions.This is a passion project that's being written to leave a tiny mark of my own on the fandom and I intend to finish this even if it's the death of me.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I've been working on this fanfic for a very long time and I've been doing nothing for the past three days except for writing, sleeping and eating. I really wanted to post this on Hajime's birthday. You have no idea how much I wanted to use the 'gift-this-work-to' option to gift it to him. XD ...I know that's not how that works, by the way.
> 
> By the way, by a very long time I mean a few years. I've never liked any of my previous works enough. They never seemed complicated enough, so there will be a lot of things seemingly not making sense, especially in the first few chapters. Just don't be surprised.
> 
> Also, my plan is to update at least once a month. Depends on how much work I have at school and such. Motivation is a great factor here as well. If I get support, I'll update more often. It's as simple as that.
> 
> As you read the story, you will probably notice a strange dynamic concerning the way characters call each other and what the narrator refers to them. The use of first and last names is a plot point, not an error. Granted, the narrator's usage of first names isn't a plot point, it just feels more pleasant and personal in my opinion.
> 
> I hope you enjoy it. :)

You all know those alternate universe stories in which a single change altered the plot into something completely different.  
This is the story.

This one just happens to include two types of memories, talent loss and a crazy timeline... among other things.

It also has some dubious content.

“I mean, it has been an awfully long time since the last time we had a serious discussion.  
I believe that was mere moments before a bullet ran through mine and eventually your head, haha.” - Nagito Komaeda

...And it has its share of bad jokes.

“Komaeda, in your hands is even a fucking piano considered an explosive!” - Hajime Hinata

It's fucking Dangan Ronpa. What did you expect?

Smut? There's going to be a plethora of it later, trust me.

With all of the above being said... _Who_ is the cause of what would happen? That question isn't as important, however.

Keep in mind that this is an alternate universe in which a single change caused a chain reaction.

The cast _lived_ during the The Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History.

That begs the question why I dare claim that they awoke to hear that it was a simulation of what happened 100 years ago.

Well... buckle up, folks. It's story time.


	2. Our Non-Existent Halves

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hajime is supposed to get contact numbers to his friends, but things don't go as smoothly as he'd like. He manages to get a reply from the only person whose contact number he has, but doesn't realize that person would rather have him not get involved.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've decided that the first post was a bit too chaotic and I didn't like the summary too much, so I've updated the fic to look aesthetically better. I've also added a prologue (that is just an advanced version of the previous summary...). It feels a bit less chaotic this way.

#### \-- The Outside World; Recent Past --

“...T-then which Hajime Hinata am I?!” was Hajime's final response, a soft murmur that turned into an outcry in the matter of one second.

“You are both of them, but one isn't real.”

“Oh, so half of me doesn't exist,” Hajime remarked sarcastically, his greenish eyes rolling. They narrowed when he was given an answer.

“Indeed.”

++++++++

#### \-- The Outside World; Day No. 0 --

It was a brand new day in Hajime's life and just like in any other story, he was in his dorm room, getting ready for his morning classes. This was a special day for one simple reason. He would get in contact with everyone he met in the Neo World Program.

It had already been twelve days since the program was shut down. Not that Hajime was there when that happened, mind you. He simply assumed so because it wasn't needed anymore. To this day Hajime wasn't sure why he would sign up for something like that voluntarily. Who knows what was going on inside his head when he decided to participate in it and, considering how many people wanted to undertake that experience, he was left wondering why he was even selected.

Before Neo, he lived his normal life and one day there was an auspicious program launched. Some rich people decided to make a simulation. A group of young people would have their real memories temporarily erased and given new ones to make them believe they lived during The Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History. Then, they would participate in a killing game.

Everything was then broadcasted as an awareness raising program to make young people realize how terrible human past is and that it should not be repeated.

Truth be told, as a participant, his revenue was more than just impressive. He wasn't sure whether it was worth it, however.

Thinking about it, he snapped his head in direction of his bedside table. He approached it and picked a plastic semi-transparent bottle off it. He cringed when he unscrewed the childproof lid to reveal a bundle of small sickly black-yellow pills. He didn't want to know why their inventors picked the colors associated with radiation. Perhaps it was to keep people from overdosing, who knows.

It was a shock to wake up from that dreadful experience into reality where he was met with identity confusion. In the past twelve days he sort of went through the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and finally, acceptance. Except... that he wasn't in grief, just confused, so it didn't last for long.

Still, there was at least one lifelong consequence coming from this. That was where his confusion came from, actually. The truth of the matter is that now he was stuck with two contradictory packages of memories. It was mostly a nuisance, really.

The brunet took his daily medication and swallowed it casually with some water. He was glad it didn't have any taste or aftertaste to it.

As for these pills, they were to avoid him mixing up his real memories with the fake ones. He didn't know how it worked nor did he want to. He might have actually refused to ingest them if he was told. What he _was_ told instead is that while they _could_ ‘erase’ the false memories, they would inevitably come back anyway.

All of the above applied to Hajime's acquaintances as well, obviously. He wondered how they coped with all of it themselves, though he was sure they'd manage just fine. He believed in them. Well, he believed in the characters from the simulation. He didn't know everyone's real personalities. They received new childhood memories for the show, so why not get a personality cut when they were at it?

He was genuinely glad that his personality stayed untouched when they were digging around in his brain. If not, his identity confusion would have been much worse.

‘I wonder if the others will be the same. I hope they will,’ he thought.

Hajime then stopped, his hand already reaching for the doorknob of his room, about to head out. ‘...But what about Nagito? What if _he's_ still like that? Will everyone else accept him...? Can _I_ even do that myself?’

He bit his lower lip and shook his head violently right after. ‘I'm just overthinking this. Everything's gonna be just fine.’

And he left.

++++++++

The college campus consisted of three main buildings, two of which were connected by a glazed hall with stairs on each end, providing the hall with its bridge-like curvature. The two attached buildings were the ones where classes were held and where administration resided. Large lecture halls were the venue for most classes and the rest took place in specialized laboratories.

As for the remaining building, that was the dormitory. Other than rooms, students could make use of its outside balcony supported by two meters high posts. It was a recreational area right outside an integrated buffet.

It should be noted that there were two more structures on the school grounds, a school library and a greenhouse. While both weren't as large as their laughably huge counterparts, it wasn't a problem for Hajime to get lost in the library the first time he went there... So yeah, the brunet spent half of his free time trying to figure out where his following lecture would take place.

Conveniently, he had no trouble remembering where his locker was... as it was in the great hall of the building in the middle of the school grounds. Opening the blue locker with the characters ‘53B’ engraved in it, he was met with a disheartening, yet motivating sight that he had put there himself. It was pinned to the metallic door right above his time schedule and under a tiny mirror.

The item in question was a photo. There were Byakuya, Ibuki, Fuyuhiko, himself... just everybody, smiling together with flower crowns on their heads like a bunch of goofy kids. The funniest part was that Hajime didn't even remember taking this picture and while he knew damn well that they had never physically met and that the photo could not be possibly real, he just couldn't let go. It was just a pretty photomontage he once found on the Internet, but it was better than nothing.

He stared at it wishfully. He kept his eyes locked on the object before realizing he couldn't remember half of his old friends' eye colors. His internal panic was soothed after closely observing the details of their faces, but to his disappointment, Hyoko and Nagito's eyes were closed. He only recalled that the boy with snow on the roof had either gray or blue eyes. He wasn't sure, though.

It was like holding onto a lie, really. He had no choice. They were the only friends he had, no family, no nothing except for a legal guardian. It didn't seem like him at all, having no actual friends that is. He was left wondering whether that was what his original personality was like before it was influenced by the Neo experience.

At that, he glanced at a standby bottle of his pills in the locker and immediately he lifted his gaze to the small, smudgy mirror. He frowned at his slick, teen facial features with a thin line for a mouth, smooth but still masculine jawline and his relatively big, sharp and skeptical, mostly green but also kinda brown orbs. He looked himself in the eyes, whispering: “Who the hell are you?”

“Are you talking to me?” a feminine voice sounded from behind the locker door. Hajime closed it sharply to reveal a small, nondescript female figure.

“N-no, sorry about that,” he uttered and cursed himself. ‘What did I apologize for...?’

The other teenager ignored what he said as her eyes lit up with recognition instead. “I think I know you...”

‘Oh snap,’ he thought.

“Yeah, I know! You're Hajime from that experiment show from the tv! Do you know what--”

“Sorry, I have somewhere to be now. Bye,” he said in a rush as he locked his locker after collecting his notebook. Accidentally he grabbed one too many items, two notebooks in his grip now. Being in a rush, he just went with it and turned on his heel, leaving the baffled girl behind.

When somebody recognized him the first time, he was pleased in a way, but rumors spread like wildfire as days passed. Correction, they spread as fast as Nagito comes up with self-disrespectful remarks. Now something like this would happen at least once a day. Although this incident wasn't like that, fans were starting to get... aggressive to say at the very least. Hajime finally understood how Sonia felt whenever Souda was around.

Hajime wanted to check the campus map to make sure he wouldn't end up attending the wrong lecture, but he would have had to go back through the locker area, so he changed his mind and risked it.

He took two turns in total before arriving at his desired destination and was just about to enter. His planned course of action, however, ran ashore. While nobody succeeded in kidnapping him (for the simple reason nobody tried yet), nobody tried to blackmail him and although there was nobody around him getting his dog put down, there was still something that kept Hajime from going in.

Be it his current child-like curiosity, hormonal teen's impatience and impulsiveness or all of the above, he couldn't help but reach in his back pocket for his phone immediately when it vibrated. Unlocking it with a few swift movements of his right index finger, he saw it. It was what he had been awaiting for, but the content of the message was... incomplete so to speak. Here's what it said:

| Remembrance Help Desk; 11/28/2XYZ, Now |  
\- Hello Mr. Hinata, it has been brought to our attention that your memory quarantine has met its final stage. While the company in no way encourages any rash meetings, you may now contact your friends: XXX-YYY-ZZZ. As you can see, you have only been sent one contact as the rest are currently unavailable. As the company, we are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and will inform you once progress is made. Have a nice day. -

‘Unavailable? How can phone numbers not be available? We're not dealing with stock items, dammit!’ he thought. Entering, he sent a quick message back:

| You; 11/28/2XYZ, Now |  
\- why arent they ‘available’? -

It was simple, straightforward and impolite. Suited his mood perfectly.

While searching for a reasonable explanation in his mind, he looked around. It was just as he remembered it from the week before. Though granted, all of these classrooms looked the same. It was a standard stepped lecture hall with a large blackboard in the front. The room was furnished with the welcoming shades of green and yellow. It was mostly vacant, but it was clear the lecture would begin soon enough.

The brunet chose a seat somewhat in the back, about two meters above the ground level, and sat down, placing his notebooks and phone on the wooden table and setting his small backpack under it. Laying his elbow on the table's surface, he supported his head with the palm of his hand and let his eyes stare at the screen intently. ‘It can't be that they told the company not to share their info. There's just no way the others don't wish to contact me... right?’

Realizing he wasn't going to get a reply anytime soon, his eyes rested on the text from the company, a certain sentence, to be accurate. The one single phone number. That's what interested him the most. He eyed the numbers with distrust. ‘Who are you and why are you the only one?’

He had so many things he wanted to say, so much stuff he needed to discuss... but each of his drafts were too long for a message. In the end, he settled with this:

| You; 11/28/2XYZ, Now |  
\- hi, this is hajime. who is this? reply when you can, please. -

After a few seconds from the moment he sent the text, a tick mark appeared in the corner, indicating that it had been viewed and read. It would be a blatant exaggeration to say Hajime's heart skipped a beat, but there _was_ an undeniable, although soft wave of hope. In fact, he was so preoccupied with this that he didn't see what was coming next:

**THUMP**

Hajime dove under the table as fast as possible. It was automatic but not quite purely on instinct. While it did play a role, a moderately loud thud doesn't instinctively make you take a leap under a goddamn table, that's for sure. The brunet was well aware of that fact. In all honesty, he knew why he reacted the way he did... And he hated himself for it, even though it wasn't technically his fault.

“Breath in, breath out,” he mumbled, curled up under the table in a ball... like a hedgehog that just got attacked by a fox. He was glad that Japanese tables were made specifically sturdy by using a lot of material for their production. As such, these tables had a board at the back side of them, functioning as an especially useful tool for him not getting spotted by anyone behind it.

He mentally slapped himself. ‘Oh come on, me. It didn't even sound like a gunshot! I'm better than this,’ he thought and finally grew aware of something. It seemed strange nobody had called out to him, but he was thankful that seemingly nobody perceived his overreaction. There was a reason for that and having already calmed down, he only then started noticing the commotion that started seconds ago.

He decided he should get from under the lecture hall table, curious as to what the source of the original sound was. The first thought that came to his mind was whether it wasn't a ball hitting the window glass, but he dismissed this silly idea as there was no playground in the vicinity of the school campus.

First, his head popped up from behind the wooden furniture, but when he noticed a red smudge on the window that lead down to to floor until disappearing, he got to his feet faster than he had first intended to. He rushed to the small crowd that gathered by the window. Curiosity took the better of him and he approached the transparent material separating him from the object to get a better look. Needless to say, the brunet's face cringed in discomfort at the sight, not because of the gore, but because he felt bad for what seemed to be a feral pigeon.

“How did this happen? We're on the ground floor!”

“Perhaps it was sick...?”

Hajime didn't say anything, frowning at the sad pile of feathers and meat. That was the moment the professor appeared and they had to return to their seats. Once getting seated after bowing to the teacher, Hajime learned there was still no reply from either one of the two numbers.

++++++++

Hajime waited.

And waited.

He received a reply from the Remembrance help desk (Remembrance was the name of the company), but it was about as useful as Tanaka at a slaughterhouse. He was basically told that the person working at the help desk wasn't informed of why he wasn't sent any more contact numbers or emails. She promised to let him know if the higher-ups tell her more.

While this was fairly frustrating all by itself, Hajime was growing even more worried by the fact the unknown phone number's owner hadn't responded yet.

He was in a room that couldn't be called a study hall, but not a rest area either; it was a mixture of both. On the table, which he sat at, lay the notebook he unintentionally took from his locker the very same morning. He also had his laptop turned on, working on his homework assignment, and whenever he lost inspiration, he would write something down in his notebook or check his phone.

The moment he grew tired of his assignment once again, he closed the window bitterly to reveal his wallpaper. His eyes softened at the sight. It was another fan art picture of ‘his class’. Instantly he remembered that morning in the locker area and his eyes met up with Saionji and Nagito's pixel eyes, one pair being orange and the other light blue. The feeling of guilt was lifted off his shoulders, but there was still something that felt off about Nagito's face in that picture. He couldn't put his finger on what it was, though.

Dedication splayed across his face as he snatched his phone. He'd had enough of playing this waiting game.

++++++++

The albino-looking male was just walking down a large arched corridor. Being the nationality that he was, despite the word ‘culture’ slowly loosing its meaning this day and age, he couldn't help but marvel at the architecture on his inside. He wasn't here for sightseeing, however.

He was closely following another young man. Neither of them talked, but the hall wasn't quiet at all. Instead, it was filled with Nagito's phone buzzing every once in a while, echoing even.

“Aren't you going to answer him?”

“I can turn it off if it's bothering you.”

“I want you to text him.”

Nagito halted, his usual smile gone and replaced with a dark face.

“...Why?”

++++++++

Tapping the screen, Hajime re-read his two-hours old message. His school work was already done and it was slowly getting dark outside.

| You; 11/28/2XYZ, 14:31 |  
\- ...you don't want to be friends with me? did i do something? -

He muttered to himself: “...Isn't this emotional manipulation? Is it? I'm not sure, but I wonder who's rubbed off on me if this is the case.”

Hajime wondered if there wasn't a mistake done and if this wasn't a complete stranger's phone number. That, or this particular somebody was avoiding him. He couldn't think of anybody to do that. Quite ironically, Nagito was on the bottom of the list of ‘suspects’. Hajime's reasoning for this was that the white-haired boy wouldn't ignore somebody that approached him for the simple reason he was the one permanently being ignored and cast away.

His believes were shattered when he got an actual reply.

| Unknown Number; 11/28/2XYZ, Now |  
\- Haha, maybe you should check whom you're texting to next time, Hajime. -

The brunet stared at the message. He was glad he didn't need to write down the obvious stutter he'd have if they were to meet personally.

| You; 11/28/2XYZ, Now |  
\- nagito? -

| Unknown Number; 11/28/2XYZ, Now |  
\- Yes, Hajime? :) -

| You; 11/28/2XYZ, Now |  
\- why werent you answering up til now? -

| Unknown Number; 11/28/2XYZ, Now |  
\- I'm sorry. I didn't have time. -

| You; 11/28/2XYZ, Now |  
\- oh, really? -

| Unknown Number; 11/28/2XYZ, Now |  
\- Yes, really. -

Hajime decided to drop it. He kinda felt bad for having basically spammed him. Little did he know, had he not done that, he'd still be waiting.

| You; 11/28/2XYZ, Now |  
\- did you also only receive one contact from the company today? -

| Unknown Number; 11/28/2XYZ, Now |  
\- Yeah. Well, what can you do? At this point we can only wait for them to send more, with our fingers crossed. -

| You; 11/28/2XYZ, Now |  
\- i guess... -

The conversation felt... awkward. He wanted to say how much he'd missed everyone, but he wasn't sure about doing it. Being lonely for over ten days made him temporarily lose his barrier that would usually make him feel ashamed for showing too much fondness of someone, but the problem that kept him from opening himself was that... Nagito almost seemed like a stranger.

It wasn't because of what had happened in the Neo World Program. The source of it was Hajime's doubt whether he was talking to the same Nagito he used to know. He wasn't sure which option he liked more (or less); the social outcast Nagito Komaeda or stranger Nagito Komaeda?

“Only time will tell, I guess,” he murmured, ruffling his hair.

His eyes glued on his notebook, thinking: ‘I'll need to write this down’. It wasn't an ordinary notebook. Hajime used it to write down anything he remembered that happened in the Neo along with every idea he had when musing on this subject; it was a memory. Neatly, each entry included a date of when it was put down.

The brownish green orbs of his lit up when he realized something.

| You; 11/28/2XYZ, Now |  
\- can we talk? -

| Unknown Number; 11/28/2XYZ, Now |  
\- Of course. What would you like to talk about? -

| You; 11/28/2XYZ, Now |  
\- i want to go over what happened in the simulation. is that okay with you? -

| Unknown Number; 11/28/2XYZ, Now |  
\- I thought that subject was water under the bridge, but anything you want, Hajime. :) -

The brunet was already typing when a new message showed up.

| Unknown Number; 11/28/2XYZ, Now |  
\- Wait a second, please. -

After a few seconds, a green pick-up button appeared on the screen and once he swiped across it, a well-known face appeared. It was a video chat. While the display was fairly small and it was difficult to make out anything out of it, Hajime came to a discovery that his acquaintances' eyes were, in fact, gray and not blue.

“I'd say this is much better than typing, don't you think, Hajime?” the boy with snow on the roof said, his typical smile spreading wide. This sight made the brunet almost nostalgic.

“Oh... Yeah, good call. So, where do we start?”

“From the beginning, might I suggest?” he said in response, head tilting to the right, his grin appearing to be oh-so-innocent, mild smugness in his tone.

Hajime rolled his eyes, sighing. The face on the screen simply chuckled, but then it turned weird... unreadable. “Do you... want closure, Hajime? To never have to go back?”

There was a confused frown forming on Hajime's own one. “What do you mean?”

“Haha, forget it. Let's talk it through then. Feel free to correct me and add anything you remember.” This baffled Hajime even more, but he decided to ignore this for now.

“The first ‘case’... if that's what you want to call it, is the easiest one to recall. Things weren't... as complicated. The first day we spent socializing as Usami told us to. By the end of the day, Monokuma revealed himself and that's when we were told we would all participate in a killing game.”

The brunet cut in: “That's also when he showed us his Monobeasts and made them guard the bridges to the remaining islands. We couldn't cross most of the bridges and we'd unlock one each time somebody was killed. It was supposed to be some kind of motivation for us.”

Nagito nodded. “Later I wrote Byakuya a letter stating that somebody would be murdered soon. He threw a party to keep a close eye on us, but he played right into my cards. Using my talent, I was able to get picked in the pulling straws game to clean the old building.”

“I used these circumstances, when supposedly nobody was around, to set everything up. Teruteru, however, caught me red-handed when taping a knife with glow paint on it under a table. Simply put, one thing after another happened and Byakuya and Teruteru ended up dead with me as the cause.”

Hajime had nothing to add to that. “...That's about right. Let's move on to the next one.” As he said that, he realized he could open his ‘diary’ to help him with this and he did so. Reading his notes, he started: “This one was with a game as a motive called ‘Twilight Syndrome Murder Case’. It was about Fuyuhiko's younger sister having been killed.”

“And out of Fuyuhiko's grudge, Mahiru was murdered by Peko,” Nagito finished.

Hajime paused. “Uh, isn't that a little too short of a description, considering that we're discussing a whole case?”

“She was killed with a bat,” Nagito added conclusively.

At that, the greenish eyes of Hajime's repeated their rolling animation. “Didn't Sonia get involved in this as well?”

“She did,” the white-haired boy admitted, “I don't see a point in debating this particular case. Nothing table-turning happened during this time. The only notable thing that happened is that those, who died in the Neo, woke up before the rest of us.”

Hajime gave it a thought for a second. “Yeah, you're right. The third and the last case...” he trailed off.

“...Is a tough nut... although it's not so hard to understand it if you realize just one thing." Just as those words rolled off Nagito's tongue, a challenging spark appeared in these gray orbs, telling him without saying a word: “You know what I mean right, Hajime?”

Hajime's gaze hardened, gulping for an unknown reason, he answered: “We forgot about the second case. In other words, after each of the first two trials we would wake up in our cabins with only memories of the first trial and every precedent event before it. During the third case, Mahiru, Peko and Sonia seemed to have went missing as we didn't know they have already ‘died’.”

“I believe we called it ‘restarts’ because it seemed that we'd mentally return to the same state of mind,” the other boy replied, sounding almost proud, but more like just happy.

The brunet then proceeded to list through his diary. “The three of them missing, things found in places we didn't remember putting them... That's what made us question what was going on. Me simply waking up in the Mirai hotel lounge was suspicious.”

Nagito snickered, drawing his attention, “That's when I served you that terrible coffee made with eggs.”

“And you bottomed your own cup,” Hajime said with disgust.

They turned serious again and Nagito continued Hajime's previous speech: “Along with those three, Chiaki wasn't to be found. As we found out later on, instead of being killed, she was deleted by Monokuma from the system.”

“...Yeah,” Hajime uttered sadly, being reminded that Chiaki seemingly never existed.

The second boy noticed this and fell silent for a while. When Hajime was taking too long to recover from his thoughts, he started talking again: “Hajime?”

He lifted his chin up, meeting the gray-eyed boy's orbs. “Hm?”

“Why did you want to discuss this with me? You seem not to have forgotten anything and you even have a notebook devoted to this.”

He took a second to think. “I wanted to make sure I remember it correctly. I've learned I can't rely on my memory.”

“And you can depend on _my_ own memory?”

“Better than nothing.”

Nagito had an unreadable expression on his face, not saying anything for a while. Then, all of a sudden, he grew a wide smile. “Well, I need to take a shower now, Hajime. As much as I'd enjoy your company there, I fear my phone wouldn't outlast the stream of water.”

Hajime blinked slowly at the sentence that had just reached his ears, not quite realizing what he meant. “Oh, okay. Text me once you're done.”

“I will.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Clarification No. 1: Remembrance is the supposed company put together by rich people who wanted to recreate the past as a show and an awareness raising program. Just in case you haven't realized it yet.
> 
> Clarification No. 2: No, Hajime and Nagito aren't the only ones currently important to the plot just because they're part of the main ship. I have my reasons for things that happen.
> 
> Clarification No. 3: No, I didn't forget that Hajime should have one of his eyes red. That's another thing to be explained later.
> 
> Fun fact: Hajime's diary / notebook was inspired by my own that I use for this fan fic.


	3. Chapter Four Begins (Part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hajime has a strange ‘dream’ as a foretoken of something not necessarily bad or good. The ‘dream’ seems to be some sort of a distorted memory of what everyone has experienced in the Neo World Program.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've decided (with the help of my friend) to divide the previous chapter into two so that it's easier to read. Now I'll be updating a chapter once a month with word count from 3K to 5K.
> 
> You should be aware that I'll be making other minor changes to previous chapters (and I already have). Don't worry, the plot and scenes will not change dramatically, so you don't need to go back to re-read them. However, I might still recommend doing so because of the long pauses in between each post and because I'll sometimes add some kind of information that feels like it should have been mentioned earlier. These new pieces of information aren't that important as you'll learn that info later anyway, so don't bother re-reading it if you don't want to. I'll be mostly coming back to previous chapters to correct grammatical errors and sometimes rewrite some sentences to make them sound more natural.

It was just a few minutes before midnight, the line between the 12th and 13th day of freedom. Hajime was getting ready for bed while listening to soft music, occasionally checking for a new message from Nagito, completely unaware of what was about to come. His ignorance didn't matter, that's for sure. There was nothing he could do to stop it at that moment. Granted, he never was the type of person for that.

While there were characters of this story expecting this subsequent event, they had no choice but to wait for what would come soon after. Interestingly enough, these people shared a simple, yet strange motive for their involvement. That was... to stop it.

But alas, everything has to begin before it can be stopped. This story started more than a century ago, but now... now was the precious time that called for being ended.

++++++++

#### \-- An Unknown World; Day No. 1 --

“Hn...” a content sound came from the back of Hajime's throat as he rolled over from his back onto the stomach. He was probably still too sleepy to notice he was about to fall over the edge of the sofa he was currently lying on. His entire body stretched and arched itself and it is an unanswered question whether that was with or without his awareness.

**blink - blink - blink**

‘Wait... where is this....?’ he thought and frowned at his memories. ‘Right, Togami and Hanamura... are dead. The class trial ended and we went to bed as we were instructed to... as if nothing happened.’ The thought didn't need to be said out loud to leave a bitter aftertaste on his tongue. The previous day crushed the remaining hopes for them living on this island peacefully and leaving it together. Just one good night's sleep couldn't fix this dispiriting sensation with its consequences on his psyche and he grew aware of that.

He started to lift himself on his elbows and realized that his clothes were wet. That fact made him scowl, but he tried to pay it no mind. He took a look around a bit to find himself to be in the Mirai Hotel's lounge. There was no way he could have missed Gundham's unconscious body sitting on the opposite sofa. Gundham seemed to be sleeping, so Hajime left him be for the time being.

‘Why did I wake up here of all places?’

Strangely, the whole room was lit with a warm, yellowish color. As a result of him seeing this fact, he looked outside the window. ‘Also... why is the sun setting? Did I sleep the whole day?’ His memories' effect seemed to only be bringing up more questions than answers. Right as he moved to sit...

**rustle**

...He subsequently noticed a green piece of clothing that his body had been partially resting on and partially covered with, now disarrayed in a ball and lying in his lap. “I'm pretty sure this isn't mine,” he murmured to himself.

There was no need to inspect the item any closer to determine that it belonged to Nagito. This finding _did_ in fact make him question the situation even further, but there were more concerning matters to worry about at that time. He put the soft fabric onto the sofa's edge where his feet had just been and paid it no mind henceforward.

He stood up and walked up to Gundham's improvised bed. Accidentally he stepped onto something soft next to the sofa. This time it was Kazuichi's jacket. Hajime assumed that, just like himself and Nagito's coat, Gundham had been covered with this one. The difference was that Kazuichi's jacket didn't stay where it was supposed to stay and slid down onto the floor. Hajime then picked it up a put it aside.

“Tanaka, wake up,” he said while shaking him by his shoulder.

“Don't touch me, you...” Gundham started in his usual manner, but his facade was broken when he yawned cutely.

Hajime gave him the I-knew-it kind of expression, but decided not to step on his pride and let him live. Also, this was not the time for messing around. Instead he stepped back to give him some space to get up.

“...Why are we here?” Gundham asked.

Hajime shrugged in response. “Your guess is as good as mine. We should probably go find the others.” They both looked towards the stairway when they heard a stair creak under someone's weight:

**creak**

**step**

It made them wonder who it might be. It should have been fairly easy to determine the owner of these footsteps, given the limited amount of people on this island. However, having been unconscious for who knows how long, Hajime and Gundham had no other choice but to take guesses.

**step**

**step**

It certainly wasn't a stomping sound.

**step**

The footsteps were relatively soft, but not in a feminine way.

**step**

At least they could be sure it wasn't Monokuma.

**creak**

The final sound indicated the person's arrival on the ground floor as they came into view. It was Nagito Komaeda, the original perpetrator of the first case, the main reason Byakuya and Teruteru were dead. Once that weirdo's face came into view of Hajime's green orbs, the brunet's fists clenched themselves on instinct, remembering the feeling of betrayal from yesterday.

“Oh, you're both awake already. How convenient,” he remarked with his typical smile. Even for Hajime, who had had the most experience with this man, it was debatable whether or not it was genuine. Hajime kinda doubted it. It was right then when they noticed that he was carrying three steaming cups on a plate.

The white-haired lad didn't miss what Hajime and Gundham were looking at. He explained: “I made coffee.”

Hajime felt like he had to question every action and intention of this boy, even such a gracious gesture. To be honest, who wouldn't feel that way? That applies especially in a situation such as this.

Nagito was already standing before them when Hajime asked him: “Komaeda, why did you make us coffee when we were asleep? If you intended to wake us up, then why didn't you do it beforehand? That way you could have asked us whether we even wanted it.”

At that, Gundham, who was already reaching for one of the cups, hesitated and Nagito did so too, both surprised. Afterwards, Gundham gave Nagito a suspicious look while Nagito cocked his head to the side as his smile reappeared on his pale face.

“You two have been asleep for a few hours. You, Hinata-kun, actually woke up about ten minutes ago, so I went to make you some coffee. While I was at it, I decided to make a cup for Tanaka and myself as well. I even asked you if you wanted one and you nodded. You must have fallen asleep right after waking up, considering that you don't remember... Is it so hard to believe I simply didn't want to disturb your sleep up until now, Hinata-kun?”

Hajime took some time to think. “Fine but... why did you make it, like, at all?”

“...Are you implying... these might be poisonous?” Gundham asked before Nagito could say anything. Hajime's taupe green gaze shifted to Gundham for a moment and returned back to Nagito as a cue for him to speak. Most people would be offended or at least taken aback under such interrogation, but we're talking about Nagito here. That guy didn't even flinch. Granted, it was mostly due the fact others didn't trust him which he was well aware of.

“Ah, you think I poisoned two of these and now I'm relying on my luck so that I don't die. Let's say it actually worked. Wouldn't I, the only one that stayed behind with you in this building, be the main suspect? I'm quite certain I would be considered to be the blackened even if I was on the other side of the island when something happened.”

Nagito's face was unreadable at that moment. Hajime kinda wanted argue against him, but the white-haired youngster had a point.

“Fine... thanks,” Hajime gave up, took a cup and sat down. Gundham gave Nagito a small thankful nod and followed the brunet's lead. Nagito put the plate onto the table before doing the same.

Just as the suspecting dark-haired boys noticed something weird about their drinks even before they tasted them, they looked at each other for confirmation that it wasn't only their own cup.

**sigh**

They both looked towards the one that made that sound. Nagito reacted to their unnerved faces, thinking they still didn't believe him that there was no poison in there. That wasn't the reason for their expressions, though.

“Monokuma isn't even around, you know. The reason nobody's here is that everyone, well, most of them are looking for him. Why would I try to murder someone when there is even the slightest chance that he's actually gone?” While his voice didn't make him seem annoyed in the slightest, there was a bit of forced respect hidden in it.

“What?”

“What did you say?”

Hajime didn't care about the cup anymore and put it down. Engrossed in what Nagito had just said, he leaned forward in his seat. ‘Did he really just say Monokuma is gone?’

At first it seemed strange for others to leave Nagito behind when it came to investigating, but on the other hand, presumably nobody wanted to deal with him. Though... that fact made Hajime _amazed_ that they left Gundham and him alone with that guy as they were unconscious.

**creak**

This particular sound was not the one made when someone steps onto some wooden floor. It was heavier. The front door of the Mirai Hotel opened as a figure entered. It was Kazuichi, his hair just as annoyingly vivid and vibrant as ever. He basically ran up to them.

“Oh, you're up! Finally!”

"Well, did you find anything?" Gundham asked immediately after his arrival.

Kazuichi put his hands behind his head and grinned. “Nope.”

Nobody except Kazuichi seemed to be convinced that everything was fine. Nagito looked especially skeptical with his downcast, slightly furrowed expression and crossed legs. Kazuichi didn't mind (more like he didn't notice) what others were thinking. Instead he decided to lean down to take a look at the disaster sitting on the coffee table.

“Is this supposed to be coffee...?” he asked, almost horror-struck. He was overreacting, that's for sure. It didn't look _that_ bad. It just had some weird sticky and milky liquid on the surface.

It should be noted that, at this point, Nagito had already drunken half the cup while Gundham had taken a sip which he spat out discreetly right after. He was a brave man nonetheless.

“Yeah, Komaeda... I meant to ask, what exactly did you put in this?” Hajime asked carefully, knowing full well that he might regret it eventually.

Nagito, who was just staring into his cup, lifted his gaze. “Hm? Basic ingredients. Instant coffee powder, hot water, sugar and some cream. Is there something wrong with it...?” He really was unaware of what was wrong, even after tasting it.

Hajime took a deep breath. “What kind of cream?” Gundham gave Nagito an intense stare, waiting for the answer.

“Egg whites cream, of course,” was his response.

Hajime swore under his breath: “Oh, thank fucking god.” In the background they could hear Gundham mutter something about the chicks that could have been born out of these wasted eggs, but Kazuichi was much louder.

“You're supposed to use milk or cream made out of milk! Are you aiming for diarrhea or what?!”

Nagito wore a genuinely surprised expression, but simultaneously he maintained his smile. Hajime had a hard time believing that somebody like him would have a problem with such a simple task. You could say he almost poisoned them unintentionally. This situation left Hajime wondering how come this guy wasn't dead yet. ‘He didn't even whip it properly, considering that the surface of it looks like raw whites... ’ This is something that usually would cause Hajime to smile with amusement, but he wasn't in the mood for that.

“Oh hey, that's mine!” Kazuichi finally noticed his yellow jacket resting on the table. He grabbed it and put it on immediately.

Afterwards there was a conversation taking place between Gundham and Kazuichi, but Hajime didn't listen as he had too many thoughts on the mind. Hell, two of their classmates died, no, were _killed_ the other day and rather than spending their time coping with that fact, they found themselves in just another mess. Just what the hell happened after they went to sleep after the trial? He needed answers and he wanted them _now_.

After a moment he looked Nagito straight in the eyes and decided to shoot: “What exactly happened before we woke up? Why did we wake up here?” Kazuichi shut up to listen and to eventually take part in the conversation. While it's true that Kazuichi would have probably been able to give him answers as well, Nagito seemed to be a better source, much to Kazuichi's displeasure.

It's not like Nagito didn't expect this. It was clear as glass that Hajime would ask him questions since he even glanced in Nagito's direction a few times while coming up with them. A slight smile tugged at the corners of his, but it dispersed in a second. “I assume I should begin from the start...” The white haired boy then put his finger on his chin as he tried think of the best way to explain the situation.

“You don't say...” Kazuichi mumbled, interrupting the speaking boy who was, quite ironically, the one of the three least disgruntled with him. In reaction to Hajime and Gundham's hard gazes, he quieted down and took a seat on the spot (on the floor, to be precise).

Once everybody's eyes were back on Nagito's face, he continued: “I was one of the first to wake up. It was about nine in the morning. The place where I found myself was an armchair in my cabin. There was a book lying on the floor, so I presume I fell asleep reading it.”

Hajime gave out an acknowledging grunt.

“At first I was mad since a page got damaged because of the fall, haha.”

His temporary laughing smile turned back to a serious expression and he returned to narrating the story: “Anyway, after I left my cabin, I met up with a few other people who had a similar experience of waking up at strange locations. Monokuma was nowhere to be found and he wouldn't appear if we called him. We decided to search the island for answers. Soon later it started raining heavily which made it significantly more difficult. We kept looking, fortunately.”

“Fortunately? That sounds like you found something important,” Gundham commented, uncharacteristically intrigued.

“Yeah, we found _you two_ ,” Kazuichi said, trying hard not to sound bitter. His hostility towards Gundham was quite apparent.

“Actually, three people were found: Saionji-san, Tanaka-kun and Hinata-kun, in this exact order. Granted, you three weren't the only ones still unconscious, but you were passed out outside in the rain. If we hadn't kept looking, you'd be, well, you can imagine what you'd look like yourselves.”

“Explains the wet clothes, I guess,” Hajime remarked on Nagito's clarification of the situation. At that moment, a thought crossed Hajime's mind: ‘Who would have thought Monokuma's absence might cause such problems?’ He was met with a slight nod. Naturally, that gesture was a response to Hajime's previous comment. Regardless of how many things Nagito was capable of, the brunet refused to add mind-reading to that list.

“Well, you know the rest of the story...” Nagito trailed off.

**creak**

Hajime, along with all of the remaining present students, locked his eyes on the main door that had just opened. Sonia entered inside the Mirai hotel lounge, followed closely by Ibuki and Peko. Sonia, quite ironically considering her Ultimate Talent, was the one that held the door for the other two incoming girls. There was a gust of moist-smelling air that crept up inside as well and reached the boys' noses. The gals glanced in the direction of Hajime's group and before doing anything, Peko told the other ones something which Hajime couldn't hear, but seeing her head for the upper floor, he just assumed she excused herself.

While Sonia started for the group slowly, Ibuki didn't hold back and ran up to the table. “Ibuki's so damn thirsty!” she shouted and grabbed the already cold coffee made by Nagito. Without thinking, she chugged it all up. Hajime was quite sure that her apparent and somehow still-lasting good mood would vanish after that.

Hajime and Gundham cringed uncomfortably, watching Ibuki's action. Needless to say, it didn't take Ibuki long to spit out the remaining liquid in her mouth which she hadn't swallowed yet. Kazuichi, on the other hand, was too preoccupied with the fact that Sonia arrived to even notice. Sonia, standing already next to Ibuki, seemed to be about to say hi, but then Ibuki started coughing some of the distasteful liquid out of her lungs.

“Oh my, are you okay?” asked Sonia. Ibuki didn't seem to be too fine, but gave her a series of hectic nods nonetheless. Then Sonia's attention turned back.

“I'm glad to see you're both doing well, Tanaka-kun, Hinata-kun,” Sonia greeted them with her professional, yet genuine smile. It was an honest expression, sure, but it was an exaggeration as she tried to hide her worries for the sake of others.

Gundham nodded at her in response and Hajime gave her a plain: “Hi, Sonia.”

There was a silence for a few seconds as nobody knew what to say... or more like, where to start.

“As for the current situation and Monokuma...” Hajime started.

“Oh, right, you've just about woken up. Did someone tell you what was going on in the meantime when you were--?”

“Yeah, Komaeda explained it to us already,” Hajime said, interrupting her. Sonia looked at Gundham and he nodded in confirmation.

‘Thinking about it, Nagito's been unusually quiet for a while.’ he thought and threw a glance his way. Nagito, who was just looking sideways, lost in thoughts, sensed it and returned the glance. His questioning gaze with his head cocked to the side turned to a coprophagous grin in a second. Hajime's green orbs just rolled at that and he glued them back on to Sonia. He was about to ask her about any new findings, but he didn't need to as she answered without him asking.

“I am afraid we have made little to no progress in finding Monokuma or any reason as to why he is missing,” she said, sounding fairly concerned.

“If Sonia-san couldn't find anything, then that means we're gonna be fine!” Kazuichi exclaimed.

In reaction, Hajime, Gundham and Nagito sighed at the same time.

“What about everybody else?” Hajime asked the Ultimate Princess.

“They should arrive soon as far as I am aware.”

Hajime nodded in acknowledgement. Then, he took his time getting on his feet and once he was up, he took a look at the sun that was almost done setting. “Unless they arrive with something, we can just start again the next day. Tomorrow, Tanaka and I will be able to help.” He looked the white-haired boy's direction one again. “You too, Komaeda.”

“If you're sure... Seriously though, you're trying really hard in replacing Togami as the leader now, Hinata-kun,” Nagito declared. Hajime's eyes' gaze hardened in condemnation as Nagito's gray orbs of his own played with amusement. Hajime had a hard time ignoring this provocation.

“I'm inclined to believe young master will join us tomorrow as well,” said Peko as she suddenly arrived downstairs once again. “For now, however, he's still unable to,” she added.

“The more, the better,” Sonia stated, some of her positivity back.

“Well, the rest of us will go to sleep soon enough anyway, so he can keep at that all he wants,” Hajime remarked as he picked the cups on the conference table and put one by one on the plate Nagito brought them on.

“Mate, you've _just_ woken up, yourself! How do you plan on falling asleep now?” Kazuichi called out.

“Why do you think I'm cleaning this up? I'm trying to lose some energy,” Hajime called back at him as he was already walking past Peko up the stairs.

After a few steps, something weird happened.

His nerves in his wrist reacted and sensed something that wasn't there. The pain wasn't strong enough for him to drop the porcelain items, but it was enough to jerk his hand a little and make him stop dead in his tracks, staring at his aching hand as if there was an open scratch wound in it.

++++++++

Sometimes when Hajime slept, he would roll over in his bed. Something like that isn't usually a problem... unless a cat crawls into your bed with you.


	4. Chapter Four Begins (Part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hajime's ‘dream’ comes to a conclusion, the group almost doing something rather regrettable that would involve someone being punished.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd like to make it clear that the following facts: Hajime only having contact to Nagito, the Neo World Program's name not made public etc.; are not just plot conveniences.
> 
> By the way, scenes with Nagito and Hajime are just for either building their relationship or progressing the story for now. It's far too soon for Komahina moments, but feel free to give me requests. I don't guarantee I'll use your ideas if I don't like them, however.
> 
> And if there are any ships you'd like to see, you can request them as well, but there's a possibility that ship won't come true because it won't fit in with the plot, so yeah. I'll try, but I don't guarantee anything.

Hajime blinked a few times as he asked himself what could possibly be wrong with his nervous system. There was also this fact, that when he tried to caress his supposed injury with his free hand, the non-existent wound let him know about its existence with a few calls of dull pain. ‘Am I going crazy?’ he wondered.

He decided to treat this new piece of information as just another addition to his list of bullshit for that day. He had created it in his mind along with the things-Komaeda-can-only-wish-to-touch list. For a second he thought about how defensive that name sounded and decided to rename it to things-Komaeda-cannot-touch-because-he-might-blow-them-up list.

Once his mind was back to his current problem at hand, he murmured: “I can tell the others later after I finish this.”

When he a few minutes later, however, arrived at the ground floor, his new founding got out of his mind and was replaced by confusion. Everybody seemed to have gathered, including Fuyuhiko who was still asleep a number of minutes ago.

“Are you sure?” Sonia said in reaction to something that Hajime hadn't been within the earshot to hear up 'till that moment. Sonia wasn't even trying to put on even a fake smile, a worrisome expression splayed across her slick face.

“What's wrong?” Hajime cut in on the commotion of a conversation that was being held. The eyes of everyone in the room turned to him.

“It's about Nanami-san. She's not here,” Mahiru informed.

“What?” he uttered, blinking. After a second of processing this, he looked around as if to make sure this wasn't a prank. Unfortunately, he soon learned that there was no doubt about her absence. He then added, addressing the whole group: “When did you last see her?”

“Yesterday...” was Gundham's line. A choir of grunts of agreement came from everybody else.

Chiaki Nanami, the Ultimate Gamer, the person that everyone at the very least tolerated, was nowhere to be found, along with the wretched Monokuma and Monomi. At this point in time, even the most optimistic of the bunch got cold feet. It didn't make any sense to Hajime. Why her? She was just a normal student like all of them.

“She must be somewhere. She couldn't have just disappeared into thin air!” Hajime exclaimed.

“Yeah but... we searched the whole island and _I_ even checked her cabin!” Akane added, her gaze downcast and worried.

Hiyoko had a contribution to the conversation as well: “Are you sure you didn't just overlook her? That weirdo has a habit of falling asleep in the weirdest places!”

Hajime was about to reply to that idea, saying that it seemed rather unlikely for her to fall asleep in a secluded location for such a long period of time that they wouldn't be able to find her, but Fuyuhiko stood up and made Hajime waver in reaction.

“Well, it obviously has something to do with Monokuma and Monomi's disappearance,” was Fuyuhiko's notion. Of course, there were people that took the idea to the next level, just as Hajime anticipated the moment it left Fuyuhiko's lips.

“What did Monokuma do to Nanami-san?”

“Maybe he is just playing with us!”

“But how do we summon him?”

There were various questions, theories and even accusations thrown by these students at one another. The loudest members of the group were the ones with the least sensible ideas and some didn't say a word. One person that hadn't said anything up to that moment suddenly spoke up.

“Perhaps he would show up... if one of us broke a rule,” Nagito proposed calmly. He didn't need high volume himself to get everyone to stop dead in their tracks, silent. This was one of the moments that Hajime wished he could gag him.

“Huh?!” Sonia gasped as well as many others.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Are you serious...?!”

Everyone quieted down once again when he continued: “This is a game to Monokuma. He'll see to us playing it according to his rules. If he's still here, there's no way he will overlook something like that.” 

“You do realize what will happen to somebody who breaks a rule, right?” Peko called out from her corner of the room, her piercing red eyes glued to Nagito. Needless to say, others weren't too happy with this solution.

Nagito smiled at Peko, then proceeded to observe the other student's faces. “Haha, no need for such expressions. I will be the one to do it,” he suggested. Nagito, the one nobody liked, offered to make it so much easier for them.

Hajime's stomach clenched itself in a knot. The problem wasn't everybody's reactions, because there was no clear reaction to be had from them. There was no immediate objection and lack thereof was what made Hajime react. Sure, he didn't know him. How could he? Everything he knew of him might have been a lie. Nagito still was a human being even if he didn't act like one most of the time.

He... objected.

“No, that's wrong, Komaeda.”

There was silence for a while. Nagito's unreadable expression warped into a smile for whatever reason. “Do you, perhaps, have a better idea, Hinata-kun?”

“We'll all do it or nobody will.” It wasn't too much of a rational thought and he knew it deep down. It would have been better just to forget about this stupid idea, but at that moment he was driven by internal rage, seeing how easily self-hating individuals may fall victim to self-sacrifice.

Naturally, there was a wave of protests. Each objection overlapped with a different one and Hajime couldn't hear his own train of thoughts, let alone anybody else.

Hajime was getting frustrated: “Hear me out! Monokuma wants this game to continue! If each one of us breaks a rule, he won't punish us. If he did, he'd be out of participants in this stupid game!”

“That's enough, everybody please calm down! Let's just forget about this and think of something else!” Sonia cried out as hard as she could to get everyone to relax.

Nagito breathed in as if he was about to say something, but then...

**BLAST**

An explosion or something of that sort caused all windows to fall to bits. Rather than just shouting, everyone ducked as fast as they could to the floor. They were like a bunch of rabbits somebody was shooting at. Some of them dived under nearby furniture, while some screamed in terror.

There, in the middle of the room was standing the one that caused all of this, the white and black figure of Monokuma. Hajime noted that the only part of the building, that got vandalized, was the windows. Not even the furniture got damaged. It seemed that it was more of a blast wave than an explosion. Hajime decided that rather than anything else, Monokuma was aiming for the shock factor. In other words, he was messing with them, as always.

“Hey! What is going on here?! I leave you alone for a day and you throw a party to celebrate it?” Monokuma then proceeded to cry crocodile tears. “That makes me so sad!”

The youngsters took a while to get back on their feet while ignoring Monokuma's comments. The glass was all over the place, even the students who then had to shake the dangerous and sharp material off. It was surprising that most of them got away without a scratch. The one with the worst injury was Gundham and he was already being tended to by Mikan with Sonia watching over. This fact gained Kazuichi's full attention.

“Monokuma! Where is Nanami?!” Nekomaru shouted at the plushie, not holding back.

“Huh? How should _I_ know where _your_ friend is?” Monokuma sounded relatively annoyed.

“Don't play innocent! We know it was you!” Akane joined in. “Talk and I might reconsider beating you into a pulp!”

Monokuma ignored Akane's threats. “Upupupu, you think it was _me_? No no no, didn't you read the rules? Go on, go read the rule number four.” He then giggled with morbid pleasure as everyone pulled out their student IDs.

  


RULE #4:  
THE LEAD TEACHER CANNOT DIRECTLY INTERFERE WITH THE STUDENTS. AN EXCEPTION TO THIS RULE IS MADE IF ANY STUDENT VIOLATES A RULE.

  


“But if her disappearance had nothing to do with this...--” Mahiru started.

“--Then there must be someone else pulling the strings,” Gundham finished for her, subsequently hissing at having disinfection poured on his wound.

“W-what are you saying...? There's only us here except for Monokuma, right?” Kazuichi said, stuttering.

“Hm? That is correct. There is nobody on this island except for us... Also, don't worry about my little sister Monomi. I've taken care of her already,” Monokuma answered.

Hajime scowled. “Is that the reason you took so long to appear today?”

“Does it even matter? I think you have other things to worry about now.”

“Let's return to the hypothesis about somebody of us being involved with Nanami's disappearance,” Nagito offered.

“I hope you're not implying that she was murdered and that the blackened hid or even disposed of her body afterwards. We have no evidence to suggest that possibility,” Peko stated.

Nagito crossed his arms. “Oh, that's not it actually.”

“Then _what's_ it?” Hiyoko asked.

Nagito flashed his smile. “It's quite simple. When a murder takes place, the body needs to be seen by at least two students for a body discovery announcement to start so that everybody starts investigating.”

“Are you going with this where I think you are?” Hajime asked.

“Well, where _am_ I going with this, Hinata-kun?” His smile grew wider.

Hajime took a second to arrange his thoughts before talking: “In order for a blackened to graduate, they need to not be picked in the class trial. A class trial can only take place after an investigation, so if there is no body found and no announcement plays, the blackened simply cannot graduate.”

“Seems pretty counterproductive to hide or dispose of a body in this situation, right?” Nagito commented.

“Upupu, as much as I hate to say it, Nanami Chiaki has not been killed. Well, at least not on this island. Also, it will be 10 PM in an hour, so why not just go to sleep? You can try and solve this mystery some other time.” Monokuma told them and left without a trace like he usually would.

There was a question raised by Sonia: “What did he mean by ‘at least not on this island’?” As nobody knew how to answer that question, the crowd soon started to disperse.

++++++++ 

Hajime decided he would stay behind for a few minutes in case Mikan needed any help tending to the students that were injured. In the end he wasn't useful in any way, but he would have felt guilty for leaving her alone. Eventually the remaining students, along with Hajime and Mikan, took their leave.

Once outside, Hajime called out after the nurse: “Good night, Tsumiki!”

She gave him a small nervous smile and rushed away. With a smile of his own, he shook his head at her awkward social behavior.

Once she disappeared from his view, he furrowed his brows as he looked up to the night sky. ‘What the hell happened to Nanami? She couldn't have just popped out of existence!’ Frustrated, he ran his hand through his hair. ‘And why did I get so fired up back there? Sonia was right, the idea wasn't as good as it first seemed. I should have dropped it.’

He sighed.

There was a cold wind wave that enveloped his body and caused him to shiver. “This is a goddamn tropical island, for fuck's sake,” he murmured as he observed the goosebumps that had just jutted out of his skin.

‘Did Komaeda get his coat back...?’ he wondered.

He didn't necessarily want to see him, yet he entered back inside the structure. It had been, indeed, left there. He took the fastest route to the sofa to retrieve the green item with the glass shards being crushed by Hajime's feet as he walked.

Soon later he arrived at Nagito's cabin door. He could see that the lights were on. He could have just simply left the trench-coat-style jacket there, but he decided to take this opportunity to check whether he was up to something. There was a sigh coming from him again.

He hesitated at first, but another chilly breeze cued him to hurry the fuck up.

**knock - knock**

There were footsteps audible from the inside coming closer. The door lock clicked and the door opened soon afterwards with the weird boy standing in the doorway.

“Ah, good evening, Hinata-kun,” Nagito greeted his visitor. He came off as weary with his smile only half of its usual size. His eyes wandered down to see what Hajime was holding in his left hand. “Ah. You brought me my coat back. Sorry for the trouble.”

Hajime noted to himself that Nagito was speaking slower than before and he felt almost bad for disturbing him, yet he wanted to do what he actually came for. “Can I go in?”

For the shortest amount of time was he taken aback and nodded while pulling the door open to the fullest to let the brunette enter. “You want to check what I'm up to, don't you?”

Along with the piece of clothing, Hajime gave him a frown which made Nagito chuckle: “Bullseye.”

The room didn't seem suspicious at all until...

**crunch**

Hajime cast his gaze down to one of his legs to find out that there was a pile of tiny glass shards on the floor. He turned to the other boy, expecting some kind of clarification. He noticed that the jacket was hanging on a chair instead of Nagito's shoulders. It was weird, considering that he would wear it all the time, especially with it being cold like this.

“Komaeda, just show it to me,” Hajime groaned.

Nagito's initiate reaction was a sharp inhale just to tell Hajime nothing was wrong, but he gave up and let out a sigh. “Just step back before that, please.”

The request confused the tanner-skinned boy, but he complied.

What Nagito did was that he closed his eyes, slipped his long fingers into his puffy cloud of hair and started moving them. With each stroke, about ten more shards fell onto the floor. Hajime couldn't believe that so much material could possibly get stuck in there and his eyes went wide at the sight. There were small piles of glass growing on his shoulders as he continued massaging his head.

Hajime tried hard, but he failed to sustain his serious face. He cracked a smile and eventually burst out laughing. Nagito halted.

“Hinata-kun?”

“Hahaha.”

“Hinata-kun, this isn't funny. I can't sleep like this,” Nagito almost groaned, but he sounded too tired for it to count as a whine.

“...Fine, I'll help you out,” he said as he came closer to get to brushing his hair with his fingers. “Just keep your eyes shut unless you want to get blind.” Nagito closed them at once while getting to work on a different side of his own head.

There was silence for a while until Nagito broke it with a chuckle.

“What is it?”

“Why did you start laughing so much? That was so random and uncharacteristic of you, Hinata-kun.”

Hajime took some time to think. “I'm just tired a lot, that's all. I can't take anything at face value anymore for today.”

There was another chuckle. “I see... You _do_ realize you've only been awake for about two hours, right?”

“Oh, shut up!”

And another one.

Hajime still didn't know what to think of this guy. He seemed almost human right then which made the green-eyed boy ponder the concept of Nagito being just too tired to act like usual and to even show him his shit-eating grin when he had realized the real reason Hajime visited him, let alone to actually scheme something. Notwithstanding the slightest chance Nagito might not try to murder anyone anymore, Hajime couldn't let his guard down when around him.

‘I'll have to do something. For our good and his own as well,’ he thought to himself.

They kept at it until Nagito felt a sting in his finger. He let his hands down and looked at one. At that, Hajime stopped to observe what he was doing: “What is it?”

“A shard got stuck under my nail,” Nagito muttered lowly.

Hajime's face twisted as he imagined the feeling. Nagito used one of his nails pick it up from underneath the other. “Got it,” he said as he let it fall to the ground.

The screen in the cabin lit up as Monokuma's familiar, punchable face appeared. “A-hem, it is now 10 PM. Please return to your rooms and relax. Make sure to get enough sleep because tomorrow you'll be able to have fun while looking for your missing classmate. Well, if you wake up the next day, that is.” The screen went black.

Hajime sighed, frustrated.

“Well, thank you for your help, Hinata-kun. I think we got everything out already anyway.”

The brunette nodded once he turned his attention back to the other person in the room. “Yeah, good night, Komaeda.” He then turned around to go to his bed.

“Sleep well, Hinata-kun,” resonated from behind the closed door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Clarification No. 1: No, the reason Hajime defended Nagito wasn't love. That will come later. As for Nagito's feelings, I think you will be able to get the hint yourselves.


	5. Our Reunion Has Consequences (Part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hajime wakes up into the material world. At first, his day seems to be as vague as any other, but then he is found by a stranger of more importance than he looks. After being blatantly manipulated, he gets to meet up with Nagito and another one of his acquaintances. This reunion serves as a trigger for certain people to get involved.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to add this chapter a week before, but something got in my way. :/

#### \-- The Outside World; Day No. 1 --

Back in the physical world, there were golden sunbeams creeping their way into Hajime's dorm room through the window blinds. Hajime yawned as he slowly peeled his eyes open. 'What time is it?' he asked himself. At that moment he regretted that he hadn't installed some kind of AI in his phone that he would ask. Now he had to get up. He sat up on his bed and stretched his arms above his head as he used his eyes to search the room for his phone.

‘Oh right, I deliberately left it under my pillow last night,’ he thought as he rolled his eyes at his own silliness. Then, he slammed his body back against the mattress, back first.

As he moved his arms to retrace them from above his head into their default position, he noticed a scratch mark that followed a crooked path from the thumb base all the way across his right wrist. “Goddammit, is this your work?” he called out to his roommate's tomcat, not expecting an answer. 

His greenish orbs returned to his wound, observing it. ‘What a weird dream,’ he thought. He was fascinated by the fact that the dream started the same way as one of the last days of his Neo experience. He remembered having woken up on a couch as well, having rolled on it the exact same way back then in the Neo World Program as in this dream, but then it somehow escalated into reliving a corrupted memory in his sleep.

Leaving the world of Hajime's thoughts now, he reached underneath the large pillow behind his back to check the time and determine whether he should get up already. Seeing that it was almost nine in the morning, he decided to do so. Lazily he got off the bed onto the wooden floorboards of his room.

The dormitory rooms had the weirdest structure one could ever imagine as it felt as if they were never meant to function as students' rooms. When you entered, there was some free space of about 2 x 3 meters with furniture along the wall for cooking. Then, there were privacy screens dividing this space from the rest of the room where beds were. In between these beds was placed a door leading to the bathroom. Also, there was a balcony connecting this room to the neighboring room. No wonder the campus was so large when they built it so inefficiently.

Hajime had the day off, no school and no work, so he decided to take care of his laundry, which he had been postponing for a long time, and then either reach his goal of becoming a couch potato or studying if he felt like it. He kinda doubted he would decide for the latter one, though.

It should be noted that he, in fact, did not take his medication before exiting the dorm room that morning.

Once in the laundry room, the one shared by everyone living in the boys department of the school campus, he was relieved to find out that not all washing machines were taken. You could say that he put his dirty clothes in one of them, but it was more of a shoving motion than anything else.

The interior was dim, dreary and mostly nondescript. With no other distractions in the room, the most notable object there was an obvious security camera placed right in the upper corner. In fact, the person, who installed it, cared so little about it being hidden that every time it detected something move, that thing would rotate so that the mobile object was in the middle of the final recording. What made it so unmissable was actually the sound it made whenever it moved.

It seemed like a waste of money to keep a camera in such a room because stealing a bunch of clothes wouldn't be worth it all by itself anyway.

On his way out, Hajime glared at the device just under the ceiling. To his surprise, the thing zoomed in on him shamelessly almost as if it was laughing at or threatening him. For a fraction of second, his unsuspecting eyes went wide and then narrow once again. In a huff, he left the room.

Later he came back with a seed bar and a bottle of water. At first he didn't intend to return before the laundry was done being washed, but there was some kind of commotion in the rest area, so here he was. With the bar already in his mouth, he climbed atop the machine that contained his belongings and sat down. The thing wasn't too comfortable and it was shaking and vibrating under him, but he paid it no mind.

The brunet felt triumphant as he had intentionally picked the one washing machine that was out of the camera's reach. Hajime felt _sick_ and a knot formed in his belly whenever that thing was pointed his direction, that's how much it nauseated him.

It made him feel line his was back _there_ in the Neo World Program, the place he couldn't even use the bathroom without being watched. Truth be told, the thing he appreciated the most when he could finally get some sleep without the feeling of having someone behind his back.

He checked his phone to distract himself. It surprised him that there was no new message from Nagito. He would expect to see from him at least a ‘Good morning, Hajime.’ at this hour. There was a possibility that he was just busy, so Hajime decided to wait for his text first. Out of boredom, he opened their chat and once he decided he had scrolled up enough, he started reading yesterday's exchange of words between them.

| You; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:19 p.m. |  
\- ugh, still no answer from the help desk... -

“I won't be surprised if I don't get a response today either...” he murmured bitterly.

| Nagito Komaeda; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:23 p.m. |  
\- :( -

| You; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:28 p.m. |  
\- ...what's with that smiley? -

| Nagito Komaeda; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:29 p.m. |  
\- Hm? Is there anything wrong with it, Hajime? -

| Nagito Komaeda; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:29 p.m. |  
\- Should I be happy instead? Though granted, I'd get you all to myself if we were to never meet the others again. :) -

| You; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:31 p.m. |  
\- no, ive just never seen you with a sad face. it feels kinda strange. -

| Nagito Komaeda; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:31 p.m. |  
\- Fair enough. -

Ordinarily, people get this kind of face in very specific situations, very intimate ones when they show their vulnerable side. It was understandable and expected from Hajime not to be able to imagine Nagito's brand of such an emotion. They had never been that close up 'til that moment.

Hajime was curious about Nagito's way of expressing sorrow. Obviously, that doesn't mean he ever wanted to see the other in such a state. He would get to see later, though.

| You; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:31 p.m. |  
\- also, im gonna just ignore that last comment. -_- -

| Nagito Komaeda; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:33 p.m. |  
\- ...Wow. This is the first time you've ever used an emoji. (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ -

| You; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:34 p.m. |  
\- what does that one even mean...? -

| Nagito Komaeda; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:34 p.m. |  
\- You've just made me flip a table, that's what it means. :) -

| You; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:35 p.m. |  
\- huh. that's fine by me as long as you keep far from my tables. -

| Nagito Komaeda; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:35 p.m. |  
\- It was a hypothetical table, Hajime. :) -

He rolled his eyes at that statement just like he did the when he read it the day before. As a matter of fact, despite his reaction, he felt like he had grown much more tolerating of Nagito as if he had gotten used to the guy.

| You; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:35 p.m. |  
\- i realize that! -

| Nagito Komaeda; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:36 p.m. |  
\- I do admit, I used to turn the tables quite a lot back then and there, so I understand your concerns. :) -

| You; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:37 p.m. |  
\- ... -

| Nagito Komaeda; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:38 p.m. |  
\- No grumpy smiley this time, Hajime? :) -

Overall he was a stranger, but he still knew damn well how to make Hajime snap. Granted, it wasn't that hard. He only did that to annoy him in a playful manner or so it seemed. Overall he came off as a much less pessimistic and a rather happy person. It wasn't surprising at all, considering that a weight has been lifted off his shoulders. He was no Ultimate Lucky Student and being normal is much easier, after all.

| Nagito Komaeda; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:33 p.m. |  
\- ill give you a pissed smiley, all right. -

| You; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:33 p.m. |  
\- 凸(｀0´)凸 -

| Nagito Komaeda; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:33 p.m. |  
\- (=^▽^=) -

As Hajime was reading these, he wondered what the probability of them both being high at the same time was.

| You; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:33 p.m. |  
\- ?? -

| Nagito Komaeda; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:33 p.m. |  
\- o(〃＾▽＾〃)o -

| Nagito Komaeda; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:33 p.m. |  
\- (๑꒪▿꒪)* -

| You; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:34 p.m. |  
\- STOP IT -

Hajime was glad that he hadn't been as high as Nagito.

| You; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:34 p.m. |  
\- ...im so glad im spared and dont see that smile of yours in these conversations, just vague smileys. -

| Nagito Komaeda; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:36 p.m. |  
\- Hm, I need to do something about that, don't I? -

| You; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:37 p.m. |  
\- ...no, you dont. -

By the end of the day before, their conversations became less tense, which he was glad for. He wondered why that was and what could have caused it, which he _shouldn't_ have done. It made him remember a memory of Nagito leaving to take a shower while remarking jokingly: “As much as I'd enjoy your company there, I fear my phone wouldn't outlast the stream of water.”

He kept reading to distract himself before he would have to resolve to smacking his head against a wall. ‘Being a teen should be illegal,’ he thought bitterly. Though... he wasn't really a teenager anymore. He was nineteen already, after all.

| Nagito Komaeda; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:38 p.m. |  
\- Also, guess what. -

| You; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:38 p.m. |  
\- what? did you find an adequate representation of your real-life shit-eating grin already? -

| Nagito Komaeda; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:38 p.m. |  
\- Actually, yes. -

| Nagito Komaeda; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:39 p.m. |  
\- (⌒▽⌒)☆ -

| You; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:39 p.m. |  
\- ... -

| Nagito Komaeda; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:41 p.m. |  
\- Is it so bad, Hajime? -

| You; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:42 p.m. |  
\- ...nah, the real ones worse. -

| Nagito Komaeda; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:43 p.m. |  
\- Oh! I can send you a photo! :) -

| You; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:43 p.m. |  
\- dont you dare. -

| You; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:43 p.m. |  
\- send it to someone whos gonna appreciate it. -

| You; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:44 p.m. |  
\- like your parents. -

| Nagito Komaeda; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:46 p.m. |  
\- My parents are in prison. -

| Nagito Komaeda; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:46 p.m. |  
\- Child neglect. -

| Nagito Komaeda; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:47 p.m. |  
\- Bad idea to remind them of the source of their misery. -

| Nagito Komaeda; 11/28/2XYZ, 5:48 p.m. |  
\- Anyway, here's the photo: -

At the end of their conversation, there was a contrast of Nagito's lit smile with the part containing the subject of child abuse hanging above. Hajime really regretted not having responded, but... He really didn't know what to say. No, that's wrong. He had _too many_ things to say when he first saw it.

It wasn't like him at all, to hold back things he could say, that is. He had always been blunt.

His reasoning was that it somehow had something to do with the fact he himself was neglected as a child as well. To protect them both from this subject. No, that wasn't it. It wasn't something his friend and himself needed to be even protected from.

‘Wait... A friend?’

The brunet assumed he could call him that. He felt like that label wasn't apt enough, though. They weren't the usual pair of friends that know each other's favorite colors, what type of pen the other used the most or what kind of weather they liked. It was different. It was that kind of bond that connects people who overcame some terrible things together. And it wasn't just him and Nagito, but the others as well.

He started growing worried about the other boy being upset for Hajime not having texted him back the other day.

...Then he got a message.

| Nagito Komaeda; 11/29/2XYZ, Now |  
\- Good morning, Hajime. Did you get a good night's sleep? :) -

Hajime blinked slowly. “Oh,” he murmured to himself, but then he lifted his head sharply with the arrival of a sound to his ears.

There were footsteps coming from the hallway and a figure entered the room soon after, causing Hajime to twist his face in confusion as he couldn't put his finger on where he saw these familiar piercing eyes that were staring at him.

The person standing in the doorway was a male of age seemingly similar to Hajime's own. In Hajime's greenish eyes, the newcomer came off a bit child-like, partially thanks to his baby face, yet he was clearly post-pubescent. It seemed safe to assume he was about two years younger than Hajime himself. That would make him a seventeen-year-old. His tall stature made him comparable to Hajime's appearance as well as his brown hair did. That was about it, however, and none of it helped our protagonist recognize this person.

“Hi there,” said the boy with a smile, his dimples showing.

“...Hi?” Hajime greeted him warily, “do you... need something?” When he was mid-sentence, the boy was already making his way towards him.

Once the newcomer was only a meter away from Hajime, he came to a stop and breathed in as he was about to say something. He was interrupted by a sound:

**buzz-buzz**

Hajime's phone vibrated in his hands, but the only interaction he had with his phone at that moment was when looked down at it on instinct. He didn't even catch the name on the screen as he looked up immediately, anyway, as he chose to ignore it in favor of this little chat that was supposedly about to happen. In contrast to Hajime's course of action... or lack of it, to be precise, the stranger reached inside his back pocket to retrieve two items out of it.

“I'm just here to deliver something,” the stranger explained and caused even more confusion doing so. He then finally revealed the two things and they turned out to be a phone and a small piece of paper. Rather than being enlightened, Hajime started questioning of what importance these items could be.

“...‘Deliver’? Just what are you...” Hajime muttered, but didn't finish his thought as the aforesaid piece of paper was practically shoved in his face. Hesitatingly, he rose his hand and reached for it. It crumbled a bit when it was taken hold of.

The other guy in the room didn't seem to be about to elaborate as Hajime would expect him to at that moment. After tapping the touch screen a few times and putting the expensive device to his left ear, he turned on his heel, about to leave. Before Hajime could protest, he said: “Just call that number and you'll see.”

Silenced, Hajime stared at the now empty doorway, a scowl on his face. Later he looked down to observe the content of his palm. It consisted of someone's fairly slick handwriting with its letters and numbers forming a pair of information pieces. To be precise, it was a phone number and an address. Eventually he muttered to himself: “...What the hell...?”

He was rather skeptical and felt quite sure this was just some kind of a stupid joke. He actually hoped that if it really was a prank, that it wasn't an elaborate one. To him, stupid ones seemed more easy to ignore. His train of thought was, once again, interrupted.

**buzz-buzz**

He put the paper in his back pocket and then leaned over a bit to get his phone that he had placed right by the edge of the washing machine. The screen was lit up with the name of Nagito Komaeda. It wasn't too surprising really. He didn't know too many people properly other than the students he had encountered in the Neo World Program. He tapped the screen and viewed the conversation.

| Nagito Komaeda; 11/29/2XYZ, 9:27 a.m. |  
\- Good morning, Hajime. Did you get a good night's sleep? :) -

| Nagito Komaeda; 11/29/2XYZ, Two Minute(s) Ago |  
\- You don't want me to spam you with kaomojis now, do you, Hajime? -

| Nagito Komaeda; 11/29/2XYZ, Now |  
\- Hajime? -

| You; 11/29/2XYZ, Now |  
\- geez, will you ever shut up? were NOT doing this again. -

He laughed as he sent the text message, shaking his head in disbelief at all of that.

| Nagito Komaeda; 11/29/2XYZ, Now |  
\- I'm not talking, though? :) -

| You; 11/29/2XYZ, Now |  
\- That's not what I meant and you know it. -

He chuckled to himself a bit and put his phone aside before climbing off the washing machine. He wanted to check whether or not the machine would be finished soon. After learning that he still had to wait for a while, he left the room to throw out the trash left after his breakfast... if you can call a seed bar a breakfast, that is.

When he returned, what he found on his phone made his relatively good mood sink.

| Nagito Komaeda; 11/29/2XYZ, Two Minute(s) Ago |  
\- ...Sorry for acting selfish. -

Hajime scowled. ‘Did something happen? Just how did his demeanor change in a matter of minutes so much?’

| You; 11/29/2XYZ, Now |  
\- whats gotten into you? this is much better than what you used to be back then and there. its human to be a bit selfish. -

There was no immediate response coming from Nagito. While it made Hajime nervous, he felt also relieved to not having received any crazy talk from him. Rather than waiting, he decided to change the subject. He had some trouble coming up with a good enough topic to cheer him up, but eventually he came up with something that placed a smile on his own _and_ Nagito's lips. 

| You; 11/29/2XYZ, Now |  
\- hey, ive just realized! tomorrow it will have been 14 days already. where do you want to meet up? -

++++++++

Little did Hajime know that he'd get to see Nagito and even meet somebody more the very same day. He was also in the dark when it came to what would follow soon after they left the safety of the house he was currently standing outside of, but let's not advance the story just yet.

It was six o'clock in the evening, give or take, and due to it being November already, water vapor could be seen forming outside Hajime's mouth each time he exhaled. He arrived at this house right after he finished at work. It was a rustic European-style structure. That wasn't such a rarity in Japan as it used to 100 years ago because the whole world had to cooperate after The Biggest Tragedy in human history. When countries were forced to help each other out, their cultures partially blended together in a way.

As for the address of this house... remember that piece of paper Hajime received earlier?

\---

_(~ 47 minutes earlier)_

_Although Hajime was supposed to have the day for himself, later that day he found himself at his workplace after being called by his boss as one of her employees couldn't make it. The establishment Hajime worked for would organize a party on the first day of each month, and with December just around the corner, he had to help with preparations. Let's just say it was one of the manager's shenanigans._

_He was just carrying a fairly heavy box into the office when his phone started buzzing in his back pocket. He placed the box onto a nearby table and then he reached in his pocket. His phone wasn't the only thing his hand gripped. Hajime was then reminded of the piece of paper he received that day, but the object happened to pull out was just a plastic wrapper. He frowned at it and after finding the nearest trash bin, he threw it in._

_Subsequently he swiped the screen and he brought his phone to his ear while searching his other pocket for the paper piece with the intent to throw it away as well. Having found it, he prepared his arm in the throw stance with the small paper, now in the crumbly ball shape, in his hand and tossed._

_“Hello, hello? This is Ibuki Mioda! Somebody told Ibuki to call this number, so here she is!” sounded from the other side of the call. In the last second, Hajime jerked his hand in surprise and caused the ball to miss the bin._

_His eyes went wide. “I-Ibuki...?” Even with it being digitalized, there was no way he could mistake her characteristic, obnoxious voice. He didn't even mind it this time around as much as he sometimes would._

_“Hajime-chan? Is that you? Of course it is! There's no way Ibuki couldn't tell!” He blinked. ‘Chan? Nobody talks that way today.’_

_“Wait, hold on a second, Ibuki. Did you just say somebody told you to call this number?”_

_“What? Yeah, he's right here, actually! Hey, Hajime-chan, Ibuki's throwing a rave party right now! You gotta come!”_

_“What? Ibuki, who are you tal--”_

_“He's saying that you already have the address!” At that, Hajime's eyes locked on the crumbled piece of paper on the floor. “Hajime-chan...?” came from the other side when he wasn't responding._

_As if hypnotized, Hajime kneeled down while keeping his eyes on the object. After picking it up, he spread the paper to reveal the letters written on it. “...I... suppose I do...” he muttered._

\---

Needless to be said, Hajime did not like the current state of affairs. There was no questioning the supposed fact that the stranger wanted him to reunite with Ibuki. The actual question was why he made his goal so blatantly obvious. The brunet wanted to call this situation a trap, but that would have been unjustifiably overdramatized. If Hajime had had to guess, he would have said that the young boy was just an obsessed fan wanting to see his heroes together.

It was strange that when he asked Nagito if he had had any experience with this stranger, the white-haired boy denied that possibility, which made Hajime speculate about why him and Ibuki were the only subjects of interest... or targets.

After being convinced to come to the party, Hajime decided to call Nagito to tell him about Ibuki and the stalkish boy. The fact that Nagito asked to being allowed to join made Hajime nervous quite a bit. It wasn't Nagito's presence that made Hajime tense, not anymore. The reason was the question _why_ Nagito wanted to tag along. While he might have just wanted to see Ibuki, at might have had something to do with the other guy. It was the latter, but Hajime didn't know at the time.

Finally making a move for the entrance, he noticed a shadow by it and once he came even closer, it formed into the familiar white-haired boy as he knew him... at least mostly. He was sitting on the cold stone floor, his knees brought to his chest and hands in his pockets.

Obviously, he wasn't wearing his typical trench-coat-y jacket. Notwithstanding how his fact should have come out as no surprise to Hajime, it still felt jarring to his brain, which found it hard to comprehend that this item never existed in the first place. Instead, Nagito was wearing a light blue autumn coat with a thick layer of white faux fur along the edge of its hood, and a pair of dark gray jeans. Not even his double zipper shoes stayed the same as they had been replaced by a nice pair of combat boots.

The brunet, with his dark blue bunny hug and black jeans, came to the conclusion that it would have been better if he had dropped by the dormitory after work to get himself better suited clothes instead.

When the figure's large gray orbs rested on Hajime's face, the boy waved slightly with his hand while his other one stayed in his pocket. Hajime noted that he was wearing gloves.

“What a nice evening, wouldn't you agree, Hajime?”

“Yeah hi, Nagito. Sorry for calling you at this hour,” Hajime said, glossing over Nagito's weather remark.

Having done that, he earned a chuckle. “Your distinctive way of acting forthright seems to be crossing the line to impatience,” Nagito stated.

“Gosh, don't pull that hard language on me this late. I'm already nodding off,” he said as Nagito's smile grew wider. Then, reaching his hand down to him, Hajime added: “Anyway, I'm glad I finally got to meet you in person.”

“A hand shake, huh?” Nagito mused, his eyes on the brunet's hand. “How unpatriotic,” he commented a second later with a snigger, accepting the gesture.

“Fuck you,” Hajime uttered and with some effort, just to mess with him in return, he pulled Nagito up to his feet. Having done that, Nagito's frame came out of the shadows quite literally and put itself on display.

While it took a second for Nagito to recover from the surprise, that amount of time wasn't enough for Hajime to decide whether or not his memory was playing him for a fool. Nagito already put a smug smile on his lips. Seemingly, he was about to retort to him somehow, but then he noticed Hajime's confused expression as he was still fighting his inner argument.

“What is it? Is there something in my hair again, Hajime?”

At that, Hajime's attention turned to the mop of hair on Nagito's head, failing to register the word ‘again’ in the boy's question. He noticed something instead. The hair seemed to be darker by the roots, but Hajime decided against sticking his nose in the other boy's hair. ‘The lightning is playing tricks on me. It's probably just a shadow.’ His eyes then returned back to their previous point of interest, Nagito's skin that is. He could have sworn it looked different.

“Nagito, why do you no longer look like you bathe in bleach?” he asked bluntly.

“...Wow. Well, that _is_ a way to put it, haha. Is it really that apparent or do you seriously have anything better to do other than paying attention to a garbage can's appearance?” With those words, Nagito cocked his head to the side. Then, he suddenly blinked and his expression froze as if he had realized something.

“ _Nagito_ \--” Hajime started harshly, but the boy cut in, a hangdog look on his face as he stared in the center of his palm.

“Sorry.”

Hajime wavered whether he should tell him anything and try to comfort him or not. He decided not to, as he would have probably made things worse. Instead, he changed the subject for the second time that day. “Anyway, why didn't you go in before me?”

The gray-eyed youngster lifted his gaze. “She might not like seeing me, so at least I wanted to come with someone that was actually invited.”

Sighing, Hajime responded: “I think that Ibuki, out of everyone we know, would be the one least bothered by your presence.”

“I suppose so,” Nagito answered with a relatively sad smile, but he shook the sadness off in a matter of seconds. “Also, it's too loud inside for my taste...” The brunet gave him a sympathetic look.

“Well, you'll have to bear it with me now. Let's go in,” Hajime told him and rang the door bell afterwards.

“Hajime?”

He turned around to him. “Yeah?”

The ex-lunatic hesitated for a second. “Do you ever feel like... you don't know what is the real you and what part of you is a lie?”

**blink - blink**

After of a second of shock, an understanding expression was painted with Hajime's facial features. “So I'm not alone, huh?” he muttered to himself, but with Nagito's face of recognition, it was clear the other boy heard him. Hajime continued: “Nagito, if it's so bad for you, maybe you should have taken more time for yourself. It hasn't been even two wee-”

Hajime couldn't finish his sentence, because somebody inside answered the door. Seeing and mostly _hearing_ the ruckus, he decided they could continue this conversation later. ‘Right now we need to find Ibuki... and that guy.’ A bitter expression formed on his face.

++++++++

Both nineteen-year-olds found themselves in the middle of a living room full of people, some of them drunk off their asses. It wasn't unlike Hajime's usual day at work. The music that was playing was some kind of dark rock and with those intoxicated students acting like the undead, the party could have been easily mistaken for a Halloween party.

As Hajime was about to walk up to the first person who seemed to be able to tell apart left from right and up from down, there was a tug on his sleeve. He turned on his heel to find Nagito pointing his finger somewhere. Following the path of the pointing finger, the brunet's orbs rested on the small punk-like music lover.

When the above-mentioned gal noticed the two ex-Ultimates, she started waving rapidly while shouting their names. They didn't have enough time to approach her and say hi before her face suddenly shifted as if she had remembered something and she ran off.

“What the-” was Hajime's line.

Looking down the narrow hallway she ran down, they didn't get any explanation, rather they were given a gesture to follow her. The two boys exchanged looks before doing what they were cued to do.

After a decade of seconds, all three of them reached what seemed to be a kitchen of some sort. This part of the house seemed to be in a restricted area for the remaining visitors as there was nobody here and the music was almost inaudible. The room was strange in the way that the second floor was here connected to the ground floor by a stairway and an inner balcony. The male part of this group arrived there a bit later after Ibuki... to find her looming over a sink, throwing up.

“Well, that explains a lot,” Nagito remarked, amused.

“Uh, are you okay, Ibuki?” Hajime asked.

The girl slowly rose her head up from the sink. She looked around and after locating paper towels, she dipped one in water and used it to wipe her mouth properly. Then she turned around rapidly and looked towards the two like a predator looks at prey.

“Hajime-chan! Nagito-chan!” she shouted and in a second, Hajime had a pair of hands wrapped around him.

“Ibuki!” Hajime protested which only made her snuggle to him closer. There was a chuckle coming from Hajime's left who, in reaction, gave the source of that sound a deadly gaze that said shut-the-hell-up-and-help-me. Needless to be said, Nagito wasn't up to saving him. He was having too much fun, which could be seen from his shit-eating grin.

Then, the tables were turned when Ibuki moved on to Nagito. It was Hajime's turn to laugh, but it wasn't out of spite. The way Nagito put his hands in the air in defense and froze petrified at a stranger's touch was kinda sweet, to be honest. When Ibuki was done, the gray-orbed boy excused himself and left for the bathroom on the next floor.

As much as Hajime wanted to chat, he had to get down to business. “Ibuki, where is the guy that gave you my phone number?”

“Huh? Oh, who knows? He left after Ibuki called Hajime-chan here!”

“What? And you just let him? Yeah?”

“Hajime-chan, there is a rave party going on and you care about _one_ guy? There's a bunch of guys of here. You just have to try and talk to them! C'mon, let's have some fun before momma comes back!” Hajime started to approach her, but stopped mid-step. He thought: ‘What person our age calls their mother that?’

“...Momma?”

“Yeah, well, she isn't really Ibuki's mother, but Ibuki has to call her something, no? Now, bring Nagito-chan with you once you decide to join the fun!”

“Ibuki!” Hajime argued, but it was too late as she had already disappeared behind a door.

He stood there, frustrated and mainly confused. ‘Why would he leave before we came...? Also, did she just say she didn't live with her biological parents or did I just misunderstand? Nagito and me having someone else for a parent is enough of a coincidence, let alone three of us. This doesn't make any sense. I need to discuss this with Nagito.’

“I suppose you want to talk to me now.”

Hajime jerked his head up to the inner balcony and narrowed his eyes. He was suddenly reminded of the dream he had that day. Having said that, he still refused to consider Nagito a mind-reader.

Nagito continued: “It's been an awfully long time since the last time we talked. I believe that was mere moments before a bullet ran through mine and eventually your head, haha. That's one way to say a goodbye for a few weeks... isn't that right, mister former Ultimate-” The voice echoing from above Hajime's head cut off mid-sentence as its owner chuckled.

The white-haired boy then added: “My, I didn't think this through, did I...? We never learned what your talent was even supposed to be.”

Hajime rolled his eyes, but smiled anyway. “...You seem to be happy.”

The boy up above came to a stop, his mouth a bit agape, he stared down. He blinked once, then twice, and finally said with a genuine smile: “I am now, Hajime.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess what, there will be blood in the next chapter. :P


	6. Our Reunion Has Consequences (Part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At the party, Hajime is promised to be told about what's happening as a part of a basically forced deal. He doesn't like it, but there is nothing he can do at the time, nor can anybody else of his friends. Shit hits the fan when they leave the house, but in a different way than Nagito intended it to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is a new chapter. It's a bit longer, so I hope this suffices as an apology for me not updating on the first day of each month.
> 
> I'm drained, so I won't do it now, but don't worry about any word count changes in the following few days. I've been polishing some of the previous chapters for two weeks, but it still isn't done. Also, I found a better way of writing quotation marks, so I need to correct that in the previous chapters as well.
> 
> Anyway, I really had a great time writing this chapter and I do hope you like it.

“I am now, Hajime.” 

That sentence echoed above, around and also inside Hajime's head. There was no doubt the gray-orbed boy's beam of joy on his pale face was unadulterated, albeit modest in its size. However, the pleasant, contented and halfway closed gray eyes didn't maintain their form long enough for Hajime to grow a smile as well. Instead, both of their young faces twisted in a way that they were close to being grave with seriousness.

They were interrupted by Ibuki before they could continue.

“Hey, can you pass the popcorn please?” sounded a hushed voice on Hajime's left.

His train of thoughts came to an end as prematurely as his previous conversation with Nagito. The only difference was that this time it was the fault of a girl other than Ibuki.

While he did get a bit annoyed, he decided that it wasn't the girl's intention to make his thought train crash and that in the end it wasn't such a big deal anyway. “Sure,” he answered and complied afterwards. Then he could go back to reflecting on the situation.

A while back, Ibuki basically dragged them out of the silent kitchen to where the rest of the guests were, saying that they would watch a movie together. And so, that's how they got in this overcrowded living room with Hajime sitting in the right corner of a sofa, Ibuki claiming a spot on the floor before the television and Nagito taking hold of a single, free armchair, albeit fairly distant from the screen. Their excess pieces of clothing, which were too warm to wear inside, were placed neatly on a chair.

Just how was Hajime expected to participate in such a light-hearted activity? Was it so hard to just let him have a discussion? Ibuki... she was completely oblivious, that's for sure. When it came to the remaining one of the three, the brunet didn't know what to think of him, to be honest... as per usual.

The brunet turned his head slightly behind to catch a glimpse of the white-haired boy's facial expression. He didn't seem worried or anything like that. When he caught Hajime's gaze, he even smiled back, which made Hajime turn back.

Needless to say, Hajime was neither stupid nor naive. The same could be said about Nagito as well, and they knew as much about each other. That fact only made Hajime more suspicious of the other for not behaving more skeptical himself and caused Nagito more trouble sweeping everything under the rug.

The brunet thought: ‘It can't just be my paranoia, can it? That serious face Nagito made a while back... What did it mean? ...What if that dream of mine was just my subconsciousness telling me something is wrong?’

He stopped, realizing something. ‘Wait a second. Why were Peko, Mahiru and Sonia in it? They were long dead when that day happened... Was it _that_ inaccurate? Well, I guess that's the proof of how unreliable human memory can be. But why would my brain give me a twisted memory like that...? Don't tell me that another side effect of this identity crisis is me confusing and messing up memories in my sleep...’

As he was musing on the given subject, something suddenly dawned on him.

He scanned the room with his eyes and not being able to find Ibuki, he stood up and rushed to Nagito.

He then leaned over the armchair, gaining the lad's full attention. “Hey, do you know where Ibuki went?” he asked quietly.

“No, why?”

The brunet simply cursed under his breath, leaving the other's side and the room as well.

Quite predictably, his tail was followed by the sound of well-known footsteps. A hand found its way onto his shoulder, causing him to turn around and meet the worried gray orbs behind.

**blink - blink**

Surprised, Hajime thought: ‘Wow... he looks like he'd seen a ghost.’

“Just what is going on, Hajime?”

He inhaled sharply, but exhaled slowly, giving up after having seen that face. “It's my medication. I forgot to take my daily dosage this morning. I thought I'd ask Ibuki for one from her own supply, but I doubt I'd be able to find her in this mess, so I'm heading to my dorm to get it.”

A relieved huff escaped Nagito's open mouth as his eyes shut and features softened. After that he finally remembered to let his hand fall off the other's shoulder and he did so... almost awkwardly, while trying to make it casual.

The boy with snow on the roof explained: “I saw the pills on a bathroom's shelf about an hour ago. Admittedly, they were hard to miss. I'll go for them while you get yourself something to drink, okay, Hajime?”

When Hajime inhaled to protest, he continued: “We're not supposed to consume the whole bottle anyway, so Ibuki-san isn't going to miss one pill. I'm sure she won't mind. After all, getting you to get your dosage as soon as possible is objectively more important than asking for permission.”

The brunet calmed down a bit, muttering: “...Fine then. Thanks.”

With a slight nod from both parties involved, they parted, heading in opposite directions. Hajime headed towards the house's second kitchen where there were served multiple drinks for the guests.

‘That look. Just what was he worried about? What did he expect? I bet my lack of a talent that he knows something...’

He couldn't throw accusations around, however. Although the situation was questionable at best, Hajime made sure to, once again, re-read his mental note that said he knew nothing about the other with certainty. For all he knew, the real Nagito could just be so oblivious and over-reactive... quite like Ibuki, actually. At this moment, these two were his only notable acquaintances and he refused to damage these relationships with groundless interrogations.

++++++++

When it came to the opponent side, Nagito had been in stalemate ever since contacting Hajime back. Had he been acting more suspicious of things around, Hajime would have been encouraged to just dig deeper. While being basically forced to tell him, at least now he had basically full control of what Hajime would know... That was all that mattered.

He shook the orange bottle in the air a bit for no real reason, fascinated by the sound.

He then shook his head and unscrewed the white lid with a pop. Taking one of the small, fairly cylindrical pills, he observed it carefully before finally setting it down and returning the bottle back onto the shelf.

“Now then, I certainly don't want him dead,” he stated, pulling a phone out of his back pocket.

++++++++

‘It's almost a waste to use this to swallow the thing,’ Hajime thought after having taken a sip of the strawberry juice he'd just poured himself in the kitchen.

There were people coming in and leaving the room all the time, but he didn't pay attention to them. He was just sitting on a bar stool, staring at the red liquid thristily. What interested him more than the people around was the amount of abandoned unfinished drinks all over the counter. He wondered if people actually intended to come back and finish them, haphazardly risking the high possibility of picking the wrong one. This reminded him of his work and made him feel tired.

**buzz-buzz**

His phone buzzing then stole his attention from his glass and he reached for it.

What he found was... interesting.

| Unknown Number; 11/28/2XYZ, Now |  
\- don't leave the house until the next morning. please? -

The brunet cocked his brow at the strange message. Was he supposed to take this seriously or not? At that moment he wasn't sure whether he should take anything at face value anymore.

For the time being, he decided to leave it be and put his phone back where it belonged. He would take care of that text once he was actually about to leave.

It wasn't too long before the boy with snow on the roof arrived in the room. “Oh, here you are, Hajime.” He rounded the counter to stand before Hajime at the other side of the piece of furniture. After lifting his arm, he held the pill between his index finger and thumb in the air, saying: “Here.”

The brunet reluctantly unfolded one of his hands and made its palm face upwards. The small medicament landed in the middle and his fingers then clasped it. “Thanks again, Nagito,” he said, looking up from the hand.

The lad gave him a smile reduced in size. “There's no need to thank me, you know.”

“...”

Hajime returned his gaze back, brought the hand to his mouth and put its content inside to swallow it with the previously mentioned pinkish red juice. Once he downed the whole drink, he put the glass down, lifting his look up once again.

He decided to ask him about something he noticed when Nagito help his hand before his face: “It's nearly overheated inside. Why haven't you still taken off your gloves like the coat?”

The negligibly taller teen thought twice before giving an answer: “Ah, you noticed, Hajime? To put it simply, my limbs, especially fingers, get cold very easily compared to the torso, so I try to keep them warm...”

“Huh.”

“...Therefore I won't be taking my gloves, socks, nor my jeans for that mater, off unless I need to. That includes if you want me to take them off in the future, of course.”

“S-shut up with your nonsense! Why would I even ask you to do that?!”

The boy cocked his head to the side, visibly amused. “I don't know. For entertainment, perhaps? ...Also, I was only talking about the gloves, Hajime.”

“...”

“...”

“Hajime?”

“What?”

There was a sudden shift in the mood that originated in Nagito's features, which stiffened and turned serious, Hajime's face following suit. The brunet felt like this was becoming a theme. The fact that the room was basically empty, people having left, helped make the air around tense.

“I'm surprised that, as of now, you still haven't tried demanding some kind of explanation from me. I wonder, is it because you doubt I'd tell you the truth, or are you of the impression that I won't grant you even a lie? Perhaps you didn't think I might know something, but I doubt that's what it...” he went silent when a small group of teens entered the room.

Now with people in a close enough zone to hear, the white-haired man then leaned closer, over the kitchen counter, his chin lingering an inch above Hajime's nose. His head bowed down a bit, his eyes trying to re-catch and re-lock with Hajime's.

Once the green-gray eye contact was restored, he resumed his speech, whispering now: “Or could it be that you don't want to know? Which one is it, Hajime?”

“That's...!”

Hajime wavered for a second. His lips maintained the slight crack in between them, prepared to spread themselves farther to talk. The problem was, he didn't know how to start.

“...I see that you need more time to make up your mind, Hajime. Let me know once you do and we'll hold that postponed discussion. I'll be waiting,” once the gray-eyed lad made a pause, his face softened again, easing the mood, “but let's go back to see the rest of the movie now, shall we?”

With that, the boy's spine returned back from being bowed forward to its upright position. His rib cage lifted as his shoulders relaxed and he turned on his heel, breaking their mutual eye contact. He didn't look back and headed past Hajime to the door.

“H-hey... hold on a minute!”

The brunet jumped off the bar stool in a hurry to catch up with him. A group of teens walked in after Nagito had left and they got in Hajime's way somewhat, but he managed to reach the other in the hallway.

“Nagito!”

++++++++

The said person turned around after closing the door behind himself. “I gotta admit, Hajime, that was fast.”

With the party still going on, they found themselves a room that would isolate them from the rest of people in the building. They both realized, noticing the music band posters on the walls, that this was Ibuki's personal bedroom, but neither commented on this freshly discovered fact.

After sitting down onto the bed covered with electric blue and purple bed sheets, Hajime responded: “I would have told you I wanted to know right then and there if you hadn't gish galloped me with a bunch of questions beforehand, you know.”

The boy sniggered, heading for a chair at Ibuki's desk. “Yes, well, I knew you would demand the truth eventually. I was hoping I could make you to take some time to think and delay this conversation.”

The brunet shifted on the bed, bringing himself into a Turkish sit and leaning forward a bit with interest, his eyebrows furrowed. “...Why?”

By the time Hajime asked him that short question, Nagito was already seated, cross-legged, expression unreadable and eyes half-lidded. “I'm in a dilemma. I don't even want to tell you, you know. However, I realize I cannot keep this away from you anymore, Hajime. Truth be told, you would uncover the truth on your own if I didn't. If that were the case, the blame would justly befall on me if anything were to happen to you.”

He paused for a second before going on: “Before I continue... Are you positive that you want to know, Hajime? Do you really wish to hear from me what's actually transpiring?”

Hajime was growing impatient and frustrated with this dragging on.

“This again? Just get to the point already.”

**sigh**

“If you insist...” he said, looking down.

“I do.”

Nagito then lifted his gray gaze from his feet with a smile. “Fortunately, I have already come up with a solution to this. Sadly, knowing you, Hajime, you're probably not going to like my suggestion too much, but you won't be able to decline... which gives you even more reason to dislike it.”

“Oh, aren't you a sweetheart,” he uttered bitterly. “If that's so, then why are you about to suggest it to me in the first place?”

The snow-haired boy huffed with amusement, his look shamelessly admitting the truthfulness of that sharp statement of Hajime's. “The fact that I'm telling you anything is a good proof I've been stalemated. With that being said, the least I can do is to put you in that position as well, Hajime.”

This confused the brunet. “...Is it even possible for both players to be in stalemate at the same time...?”

“It is if they're not playing the same game.”

That answer didn't help.

“Whatever,” he said, ruffling his hair, “cut to the chase. I don't think I'll be able to keep myself from losing the thread for too long.” A yawn escaping his mouth exaggerated his point.

“Oh, of course,” he started with a look that morphed into a focused one, shifting in his seat, “with all of that being said, I've decided I'll let you present me with three questions. They can be of any kind you want them to be and I will answer each one of them.”

“Three? That is hardly fair!” Hajime jumped up.

Nagito shrugged with a merry grin. “And do you know what is even _less_ fair? The fact that I want something in return.”

The brunet slumped back onto the bed. “And that is?”

“In return, I want just two things from you, Hajime,” he said with an unreadable expression on his face while lifting two of his still-gloved fingers in the air, causing Hajime to narrow his greenish orbs with suspicion and interest. “First of all, I want you to stay away from strangers at all cost, no matter how amiable they may seem and notwithstanding how much they offer you.”

Hajime didn't understand how this was even a request, but kept quiet.

“Lastly, there will be time when I tell you to do something you'd never do. That one single time I want you to listen to me and do as I say. You'll know when that moment comes.”

“You can't be serious...!” Hajime protested.

“Well, you still can say no and pretend like nothing ever happened.”

“Wait, you said that I wouldn't be able to decline. You hadn't given me a reason as to why I shouldn't yet. So what happens when I _do_ decline this whole deal?”

“Hm, the reason is you won't be able to get any information otherwise.”

“Why? You're not the only source. I can find the truth on my own. You said it yourself.”

Komeda smiled a coprophagous grin, expecting such a statement. “Oh, previously I was referring to the hypothetical situation in which I just let you be. If you now decline, I will know very well what you're up to...”

“Yeah, and?”

“...I will stop you.”

Hajime froze, thunderstruck. The boy before him let his eyes shamelessly wander on his stiff facial features with a wide 'gotcha' smile.

He then waited patiently for the brunet to put his mind full of thoughts into working order. He engaged in watching how Hajime's face was stuck in a cycle of shifting from confusion to anger to doubt, then to eagerness and curiosity, only to return back to confusion. After the loop repeating itself for the third time, Hajime shook his head abruptly and his eyes' line of sight made a leap to the gray ones. "Fine," was the final answer.

At first, Nagito considered asking him whether he was sure, but came to the conclusion that he wouldn't change his mind even if Nagito tried to make him come around. He just smiled a tired smile.

Deep inside, the ex-Lucky Student was boiling for having to do this, but pretended nothing was wrong.

“By the way, Hajime, I know about that message you received half an hour ago. I don't want you to trust that person, but it's up to you to decide.”

The brunet scowled once again, but Nagito spoke before he could ask anything.

“That can be your first question for me, Hajime,” he uttered with an amused puff.

In response, he just glared, but suppressed it in a second.

The gray orbs turned a level of hue darker, his expression so unreadable that it made Hajime feel illiterate. “I do realize none of this is going to make you like me. Quite the opposite. There's no need for you to hide my well-deserved glares.”

“...”

‘...Just what's gotten into him again...?’

Hajime was the one to break the now occurring silence, throwing the previous subject out the window: “By the way, shouldn't we have discussed this with Ibuki?”

**rustle**

Both youngsters eyed the door from which the sound came. Nagito got up and marched to it silently, opening it to reveal...

“Ibuki?” Hajime uttered.

Ibuki just blinked, surprised at being found out, and then grinned widely. “What? Ibuki can eavesdrop on her own bedroom, can't she?”

The conversation didn't go any further at the core after that and both Hajime and Nagito decided to leave, much to Ibuki's disappointment.

++++++++

When they finally set out, fully clothed, the long day was nearing its end and the water vapor forming out of their breaths became thick as a valley's morning mist. It wasn't necessarily freezing, but it was significantly colder than when they arrived at Ibuki's. To top it all off, it was dark enough to give them trouble seeing their own feet and watching their steps, only an occasional street lamp to shine on their way.

Yawning deeply, Hajime let his greenish eyes wander into the peripheral field of vision to catch a glimpse of the other's face. ‘It's that serious look again... And is that... guilt?’

Needless to say, the gray-orbed boy sensed the gaze glued to his upper half and turned his head in that direction, slightly softening in the face. “Shall I drive you to the dorms, Hajime? It wouldn't be wise to walk down the street at this hour.”

He shook his head. “Nah, I don't want to rob you of any more of your time.” With that, out of exhaustion, one of his knees gave out under his weight and he had hard time keeping himself from falling.

Nagito brought his hands before Hajime's body instinctively, but retrieved his unneeded arms back soon once the crisis was over. “That wasn't a question, Hajime,” he added with a muffled laugh.

“Gee, could have fooled me,” he answered, too weary to roll his eyes. He didn't protest any longer, acutely aware of the staircase that was awaiting him, which he needed to conserve as much energy as possible for. He scowled, frustrated at how his stamina's level seemed to drain dramatically with each step for no apparent reason.

They kept walking at a slow pace, making only a few steps until eventually... there was a bark.

Hajime turned his head back curiously in the direction of the sound before his nerves registered a grasp around his left wrist. Before he could even realize it was only Nagito's ostensibly harmless grip, he felt a violent tug on his arm via the clutch pulling him into sprint.

“What the hell!” he shouted mostly on instinct, surely not intentionally.

He then looked back once again, but could not spot a single human being or an animal. After a few seconds of failure to find enlightenment to what was going on, he gave a look forward to the boy leading him who-knows-where only to be taken no notice of.

There was no explanation coming from his supposed friend, no comfort, no lunatic laughter, no nothing. The brunet realized this wasn't a prank or anything but something serious. For the time being, he decided to let Nagito do what he was doing as he himself didn't even know what was happening. Hell, he didn't know what they were running from.

Still skedaddling, breathing heavily, it was about time for Hajime's second knee to give out as well. And so it did. He managed to keep moving, however. When the boy in the lead registered a sharp backward tug, he pulled forward a bit harder, somewhat balancing them both.

It should be noted that, despite his legs being weak, he wasn't feeling like falling asleep on the spot anymore, probably due to the current high hormone level. He could only wonder how unhealthy and destructive it must be for a tired body for having to keep itself conscious like this.

A minute later, Hajime's stomach was starting to turn for an unknown reason. He wasn't sure whether he wanted to live or vomit more, to be honest. Needless to say, he had completely lost count of how many turns they had taken already and he didn't even _care_ anymore.

To relief of them both, they soon found themselves pressed against a wall of an alcove of a random building. While Hajime's body was grateful for the rest, at the same time it stopped producing the substance that had been keeping him awake up until that moment.

“I'm... afraid... that the... car... is out of question,” the man with snow on the roof huffed out words in between breaths. He, like Hajime, appeared to have little energy to spare and, unlike the brunet, was keeping his hand on his abdomen.

Hajime didn't say anything, not knowing what to say anyway. The prevailing effects of the rush of adrenaline was what still kept him on his feet, but not for long. His eyelids were growing heavier than ever and he couldn't make it stop. If there was anything he knew for certain, then it was the fact that there was nothing normal about his current state.

“I think we're safe.”

That sentence only calmed him down more, which was the opposite of the needed effect. He was then given an intense stare by the other who seemed to be in deep thought, seemingly contemplating something.

“...I'm sorry, Hajime...”

The brunet watched as the entire length of one of Nagito's arms, the one that had been placed on his stomach up until then, then stretched out in the air, an inch below his eye level, its palm open and facing him. Before he could somehow react to it, it moved.

**slap**

It... hurt.

The pain was intense, but hardly enough to make his brownish green eyes water blue. Admittedly, his awareness of his surroundings grew exponentially after the fact. It was like a potent morning alarm.

He snapped his head back to the previous position it was in before it was forcibly turned. “What was that for, Nagito?!”

“I'm really sorry, but could you hold off your collapse for a minute, Hajime? I can't have you passing out now and this was the only way to pump some more adrenaline into you.”

He wavered before responding: “You really couldn't think of anything better?”

A drained smile appeared on the pale boy's lips. “Well, I had another option in mind, but your pulse is clearly already racing and you look disgusted enough as it is, Hajime, so I have my doubts you would appreciate what I might have done to you instead any better than a slap, haha.”

With the way his eyes reacted, the brunet seemed to get the implication, but his embarrassment was easily hidden behind the pink mark on his swollen cheek anyway.

However, despite his presumable lightheartedness, Nagito did not look good. His skin was mysteriously as white as it used to be when Hajime first saw it, his gaze wasn't as sharp and he was bent down a bit, clutching his lower belly again. He was still breathing heavy, so Hajime didn't think too much of the last symptom of his.

“Let's hurry,” Nagito breathed out, once again dragging the brunet by his wrist.

“Ah! Nagito!” he reacted to the sudden action.

Neither of them complained at the pointy branches of the bush fence that the white-haired boy led them through. Having crossed it, they found themselves in a kids section of a park.

Still being pulled on with a fair amount of force and an unreasonable sense of hurry, the brunet observed the other's intentions carefully. It seemed he was making a beeline for a slide with a kids house at the top. "I swear, Nagito, if you're going to tell me we ran all this way for you to tell you're just afraid of dogs..."

There was no laughter or anything similar. Instead, there was a gust of cold wind.

Hajime's face got colder and he felt his hair stand up. What was strange was that there was a spot on his cheek that felt colder than the rest when the wind blew... as if it was moist somehow. He used his free hand to dip a finger in the presumed liquid.

And what do you know? His finger did get wet.

He barely noticed his other hand being let go of, fascinated and worried about the substance. He wondered: ‘Do people cry when they get fatally tired or what...?’

The brunet couldn't see anything, let alone the color of the fluid. No other choice being on his mind, he brought his finger to his parted, cold-dry lips. He put the tip in and his eyes widened at the bitter, metallic taste. “What the hell...!”

It was blood, no doubt about it.

Hajime's head shot up to see the gray-orbed boy's lower half disappear up above as he got inside the kids house. He climbed up as fast as he could and found him sitting in a corner, resting his back against one of the plastic walls. There was no light source here, not even the moon reached here, so Hajime pulled out his phone and shone its flashlight.

“Show me your stomach, Nagito,” the greenish-eyed boy ordered uncompromisingly, but the other's stomach was already revealed by the time he said it.

Nagito had unzipped his jacket, that now had streaks of blood on each end side and his once white t-shirt had gotten a permanent pink re-dye in the middle. It seemed that the liquid had even flown down onto the jeans and Hajime was pretty sure that his underwear was ruined as well.

As for the wound, it was a torn-up mess, a linear cut in the flesh that looked like someone had grabbed at each side and forcefully pulled it open. He noticed there were holes in the skin, some of them not so round, with strings functioning like loose shoelaces. Hajime, even in his state, realized these were stitches.

“Goddamit,” Hajime cursed, turning his attention to his phone, “hang on, Nagito.”

He sloppily swiped a bloody finger across the screen and tried to dial the needed number. He could feel and see his eyelids drop while not being able to see the screen properly and the force of will was what kept him from passing out on top of the other boy. It was the third time that he was actually successful in typing in the correct numbers in the right order.

“There is a young man bleeding here. We need an ambulance,” he murmured into the built-in speaker feebly.

“Make it two,” the boy that slid with the rest of his body on the floor said just loudly enough for the lady on the other side to hear.

That was the moment when Hajime's body gave up, having achieved the minimum of what meant guaranteed rescue. His eyelid obscured his already blurry vision and everything went dark as he collapsed at Nagito's feet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You didn't think I'd forgotten about Nagito's illnesses now, did you? :P
> 
> Also, I'm messing with you profoundly if you haven't noticed yet.


	7. Dreams Accumulate Clues (Part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After collapsing next to his bleeding acquaintance, Hinata wakes up again in what happens to be the continuation of his ‘dream’ from the other day. He finds out that Komaeda and he have been asleep for a ridiculous amount of time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, it's a bit early for a new chapter, but whatever.
> 
> The following year I'll have a ton of exams, so I'm trying to write fast enough to get to the most important parts before then.
> 
> I can't wait to get to the part where I finally connect these ‘dream’ parts of the story to Hinata's reality. His memories won't seem all over the place, so he (and you as well) should get a better understanding of what is going on.
> 
> As usual, I hope you enjoy this one.

#### \-- An Unknown World; Day No. 3 --

Strangely enough, Hajime's body was motionless while lying on the white bed. It didn't just seem akin to being paralyzed just because his flesh was obscured by the curtains of the bed. He, indeed, looked corpse-like, especially compared to his usual wild nights.

Suddenly, the view changed. It was as if somebody had just let go of the invisible ropes that had been keeping him still. He wiggled a bit and quivered under the coldness of the air.

His hearing was the first sense of his that got ‘turned on’, so to speak.

**dropdropdropdropdropdropROARdropdropdropdrop**

His half-functioning brain managed to recognize the endlessly looping sound as the sound of rapid rain, a roar of sea waves striking at the beach encompassed within it. It took his consciousness a second to realize what information his hearing center of the brain had just processed.

Opening his greenish brown eyes, he propped himself on his elbows.

He felt like death. His explanation for this was that it was obviously still nighttime. He had no idea for what reason he'd woken up this early, but he didn't give a damn, too tired for something like that. His body hit the mattress after he let it, and went to sleep again.

Well, he tried.

As much as he would have liked to catch some Zs, feeling as if he was chained to the bed, his body seemed to hate him and was dedicated to torturing him like that. With that being said, no matter how many times he rolled over, twisted himself or budged, it was no good.

He thought: ‘Goddamit, am I nervous or something? I need to get some rest! How am I going to help look for Chiaki if I'm like this tomorrow?’

After half an hour of futile attempts, he sat up and slammed his fist into the pillow out of frustration. He was breathing heavily, furious and desperate. His emotions were so strong that he murmured: “Won't fall asleep, will you? Fine. All I have to do is to fatigue myself enough to collapse.”

He got up as sharply as his zombie-ish body allowed him and headed for the switch on the wall to turn on the light. His eyes burned a tiny bit, but it wasn't anything he couldn't bear.

The frustrated brunet then realized he had nothing to do, so he decided to take a nice shower, thinking it would give him an opportunity to think while the cold water would slowly wake him up.

As he walked towards the glazed bathroom, taking off his shirt in the process (he didn't even bother to take off his clothes the previous day), he glanced up at the ever-so-hardworking surveillance camera. He stopped mid-step and mid-strip, glaring. A thought occurred to him. ‘What if I took a swim in the ocean instead?’

Needless to say, Hajime, just like most people, did not take pleasure in being recorded while doing his private business. Granted, there were cameras outside as well and this one didn't seem to reach inside the shower completely. After thinking this through, he decided that he'd take his clothes in his cabin rather than out there where somebody might see him. Though he was sure, somebody was going to watch the footage of him at least taking off the clothes, him being still in reach.

Begrudgingly, he took off his shirt fully, pulling it over his head rather laboriously as he didn't have the patience to unbutton it. The green tie of his landed on the floor in the process as well. Next were the socks and his shoes. Yes, he indeed, did sleep with shoes on that night. Both pairs were now taken off.

Lastly, he moved on to his pants and after stripping this next layer of clothes, there were only his boxers remaining. Refusing to give any person potentially watching the pleasure of seeing him hesitate, he decisively slipped his thumbs underneath the soft fabric on both of his hips, grasped it on both sides and pulled down.

He didn't even give the camera up above a glance and headed for the shower. While regulating the water temperature with his right hand, he checked it by putting his left one in the falling stream.

His palm facing up and being visible, Hajime remembered. ‘Oh, I didn't tell anyone about that... ‘incident’.’ He shook his head rapidly. ‘Whatever. It's hardly as relevant as Nanami's disappearance. I'll tell them if I find a good reason to. It might have been just my body being weird and I'd just draw attention away from things that are actually, verifiably important.’

Once it was safe for his skin, he stepped in the tiny waterfall's stream. He'd completely forgotten his initial intention to have it cold.

“Ahhhh,” he breathed out heavily, relaxing a bit under the warmth.

However, it was impossible for him to get completely anxiety-free.

He tried to ignore the source of his stress, but his attempts were in vain, even though he was sure he was out of the camera's reach. His problem was that he knew that Monokuma would need to know what was going on inside the bathroom in case a murder were to occur there. This gave him this paranoia about there actually being a _hidden_ camera to give them a false sense of privacy.

He could _feel_ this invisible camera over his shoulder recording each stroke he graced his body with. His back, his butt cheeks, the back of his knees, his thighs... everything felt like it was made a record of. If he were to turn around, he was sure that even the inside of his belly button would get an honorable mention in this recording... surely in great detail.

It made his stomach twist and his digestive juices started to rise up his esophagus when he thought about it. He was unable to do anything about that nuisance, so he simply gritted his teeth and brought his lower lip in between them to bite into it. It helped him control himself.

Trying to make himself forget it, he instead thought: ‘So today... We'll try, no, we _will_ find Nanami and then... Ugh. As much as I hate to admit this, even if we do find her, nothing will be solved about the fact nobody's getting off the island unless... unless someone else gets killed.’

Swallowing the blood-filled saliva, he turned the tap and stopped the water. ‘I wonder what the next motive will be.’ A bitter expression formed on his face.

Despite it having been pleasantly warm, it still managed to wake him up a bit, it seemed.

The moment he turned around to step out into the open air, he snatched the towel hanging conveniently close up. He wiped himself dry sloppily and then wrapped the smooth fabric around his bony hips.

The piece of cloth didn't stick to his lower half for too long as he let it slide down to the floor seconds later. After taking care of his need to use the toilet which was, again, imprinted in the postulated camera's memory, he finally clothed himself with a new batch of his clothing visually identical to the one he took off minutes ago. Seriously, even a fresh new pair of his sneakers was included in the provided clothing.

He did all of the above while profoundly ignoring the camera up above.

Suddenly, his stomach growled in hunger, which gave him a new objective. He wasn't sure whether there would be food ready this early. Granted, he didn't even know the time.

Looking around the room, he asked himself: ‘How long is it before the sun rises?’ The window caught his eye, an orange and red hue tainting the otherwise dark blue sky along the horizon. It had stopped raining already. ‘Well, at least the sun hasn't betrayed me yet,’ the brunet thought.

He was about to set off, hopeful to find a morning person to talk to. He stopped when he noticed something, a piece of paper sitting on the wooden, oblong piece of furniture by the bed. The paper lay right at the base of the wide monitor in the corner.

Hajime took a few steps and grabbed it. It looked as if a child had scribbled it using low-quality crayons.

  


TAKE A LOOKSIE UNDER THE BED!

  


‘What the hell is it this time?’ He gave the paper and subsequently the surveillance camera a distrustful glare.

He complied anyway, kneeling down at the feet of the white canopy bed. What his right hand discovered and pulled out afterwards stroke him as disturbing, though it really should't have surprised him at this point.

It was a box... shaped like a small coffin.

His nose cringed upwards. “What a distaste,” he uttered.

When Hajime pulled the lid off, the sight didn't catch him off guard this time, even though there was a revolver lying on a pink velvet pillow inside. “Seriously...” the brunet muttered while shaking his head, having grown tired of this.

He stopped himself from closing it again, realizing something. He managed to get the cylinder containing ammunition open on his first try. He was positive he had never held a gun in his hands before, but he ignored the fact how skilled with it he seemed to be.

Obviously, it was loaded.

‘Figures,’ he thought sourly, turning it upside down and emptying its ammo chambers on the floor nonchalantly. When he then started picking each dumped out bullet, he noticed that two of them were deformed, seemingly already used.

He didn't know what to think, he just wanted to get rid of all of this. There was no trash bin in the cabin and it was against the rules to throw stuff in the environment, so his only choice was to hide it.

The hiding place for the ammunition that he picked was his pillow, sticking it inside. As for the revolver itself, he put it back in the box and pushed it deep under the bed. He shoved it strong enough to hit the wall.

**thud**

The sound that came was expected, but what came afterwards wasn't. There was a following sound of something rolling and then another thump, this time softer.

Hajime had already stood up by that point, but he returned to his previous position on the floor. He crawled under the bed to find that there were actually two more objects underneath. According to his touch, one of them was something of cylindrical shape, the other was just another box.

**knock - knock - knock**

In reaction, he lifted his head and hit its top against the bed frame. He cursed and with some effort, pulled his body out from under there, letting go of the two items and leaving them there.

‘Who could it be this early...?’ he wondered seconds before opening the cabin's door.

“...Sonia?”

There wasn't anything unexpected about her appearance; the same clothes, hair, everything except for her expression. Her usual polite smile was replaced with a concerned one. Now that he thought about it, that change was actually predictable.

“Hinata-san! You are awake!” she exclaimed, relief showing on her face.

“Uh... Isn't that obvious...?” he uttered, scratching his head. “Anyway, why are you here again...?”

She wavered at a realization. “Oh, you actually do not know... That... is actually justifiable.”

Before he could say anything, her eyes widened.

“Oh my! Where have I left my manners? Please excuse my indecency, Hinata-san, and good morning!”

“Good morning? Are you going to tell me what's going on this time? And why are you even up so early?”

It took her a second to recollect her thoughts. “Oh, well, I could not sleep, anyway, so I came to check on you when I saw the light coming from the inside. We've been worried about you not waking up on top of Nanami-san having gone missing.”

“...What? What do you mean?”

Another voice joined the conversation: “Although she speaks like a fucking noble that she is, she can't explain for shit. No surprise there.” It was Fuyuhiko, walking towards them while stretching his arms above his head. He elaborated: “You and Komaeda have been asleep for over than twenty-four hours, you know. We had to search for Nanami by ourselves yesterday.”

Hajime's confused, yet attentive gaze turned to disheartened Sonia.

She shook her head slowly, her blue eyes downcast. “She's gone.”

Fuyuhiko didn't have anything to add and remained respectfully quiet.

++++++++

‘Ugh, I can't even...!’ Hajime hissed internally as he dug his nails in the skin of his head, his eyes intent and downcast, watching his cabin's floor.

He stopped when he realized his nails caused him pain and he let his hand fall down to his hip level. Similarly, he then let the rest of his body loose and let himself fall sideways on the bed. He was... psychologically drained, but his body was so pumped up with energy that it wouldn't let him rest. Granted, he couldn't catch a wink even before when his body wanted to.

So many questions overflooded his mind, the same ones over and over again, flowing in circles inside his brain. It made him dizzy.

The brunet looked sideways, burying himself in his thoughts deeper: ‘So... after the first trial, some people and I slept for almost a whole day, in the evening I woke up on a couch, went to sleep about an hour later _exhausted_ , might I add... and then my nap lasted for more than just a day... What does it all mean? How is it connected to Nanami's disappearance?’

His most obvious problem was, simply put, limited access to information. The rest of data was concealed by this invisible barrier of this tiny world that bore the name Jabberwock island. If he were to break the barrier... well, there was no way for him to do that. Let's just say it was far too soon for him to connect the dots. Just try to connect a dot to one that doesn't even exist in your reality. Seriously, he didn't know there was such a thing.

Talk about confusion, he was _frustrated_. He was like a child that didn't write down all the information needed to solve a question and now couldn't find the answer.

Suddenly, Hajime got up sharply and shook his head to make everything go away. ‘I won't solve anything like this. First things first, I'll get myself something to eat. Maybe the others will remember something more to tell me.’ His stomach growled at the mention of nutrition. Like, a lot. ‘Yeah, that's a good plan,’ he agreed with himself.

As he headed for the door, he realized something: ‘Come to think of it, it's obviously time for breakfast, if it's not even after the fact already. What happened to the morning announcement?’

Needless to say, the monitor didn't lit up, no matter how intense his looks towards it were. ‘...Could it be... that Monokuma is missing once again? Just what the hell is going on on this island?’

His point of interest changed to be the camera up above. ‘Too bad these things will keep recording 'till the end of days, regardless of his absence.’ With these thoughts, he exited the room.

The crepuscular rays, which people associate with dawn and twilight, weren't there as an indicator of it being a fair bit too late for breakfast. These news made him hurry a bit.

While he was walking past the other cabins, the brunet remembered that Fuyuhiko mentioned Nagito having been asleep for a prolonged period of time as well. He wondered whether he was already awake. Moreover, he wanted to check on whatever shenanigans the Ultimate Lucky Student could be up to.

knock

Too late did he realize that the door wasn't shut properly and his knuckles pushed it wide open instead of making an actual audible sound. Hajime's face darkened, observing the interior.

There were no signs of a fight, the glass that came from his hair the other day was now gone and only the bed sheets were slightly wrinkled as if somebody had taken a cat nap. ‘Did he... forget to close his door?’

Hajime closed the door and hurried towards the Mirai Hotel, hoping that his suspicions, that he started having, were wrong. The wooden pier moaned as he basically stomp-ran his way further to his desired location.

++++++++

“Ah, Hinata-san! You have finally arrived!” was what first came out of Sonia's mouth as he got there. Basically the whole class was already gathered here.

Akane then joined: “You really scared us, you know. C'mon, eat as much as you want! You haven't eaten for so long that you might even break my own record, haha.”

The greenish-eyed brunet held his hand up in the air in front of his chest as a cue for them to let him speak. He exhaled and inhaled deeply before speaking, not used to running in such hot conditions. “That can wait. Has anyone seen Komaeda? His cabin door was open and I couldn't find him anywhere near.”

There was silence for a fraction of second.

“...Oh that! He's doing just fine. You can thank me for that, by the way!” Kazuichi chirped, seeming a fair bit less frightened than usual for some reason.

Hajime scowled in puzzlement. “What are you talking about?”

The next one to talk was Gundham whose tone of voice made him seem just as disinterested as ever: “It seems that the individual you are seeking is residing in the old hotel building at the moment.”

“It seems...?” Hajime repeated, cocking an eyebrow.

Someone then lost his patience, apparently feeling sorry for the brunet not being able to get a straight answer and being given the runaround instead.

There was a sigh coming out from between the young yakuza's lips. “Nidai and Souda took the opportunity and tied that son of a bitch down when he was still unconscious and left him there. I gotta give it to them, he's too fucking dangerous to be left to do as he pleases, anyway,” he finished with a nonchalant shrug.

He looked to see Hajime's facial reaction and then continued: “I gotta say though, it felt weird watching them bind him up. He was like... a cog, as if the guy was narcotized or something. Zero resistance, just nothing. The scene reminded me of the shady business people around me would engage in.”

Hajime was... taken aback, to say at the very least. He was suddenly reminded of what meant to be a yakuza and he wasn't sure which disturbed him more; this mental image or Nagito himself. On top of that, the description of what Kazuichi and Nekomaru had done to the white-haired boy didn't calm him down a single bit.

Silence overthrew the prevailing atmosphere and the room then became a hostage to tension. Most people's expressions copied Hajime's own.

“H-hey, don's say it like that! You're making it sound as if we drugged him or something!” Kazuichi exclaimed and turned briskly to Hinata, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt desperately. “I swear we didn't do such a thing! That guy makes my hair stand on the end, but I wouldn't dare to! You gotta believe me!”

“Y-yeah, that's right!” Nekomaru joined in, sweating a bit.

“Goddamit, Souda! I believe you, okay? Now let go of me!”

Kazuichi quickly realized his overreaction and loosened his grip completely, stepping back. “Sorry!”

There was a grating laughter coming from the back of the room where Hiyoko stood. “Yeah, I believe you, too! There's no way those two buffoons could somehow spike _that guy's_ drink!” That comment was left in the background, ignored.

Peko then asked: “Are you positive you trust their word? You seem a bit lax if you believe them so easily.”

Hajime gave her a calm answer: “No, I'm pretty certain they didn't do it. The last thing Komaeda drank that day was a coffee he made himself. I was there the whole time. There was no maneuvering space for anyone to spike it.”

“You do realize that alibi is damn weak unless you were with him the whole time he was awake, which you weren't since you woke up a few hours after him?” Fuyuhiko opposed.

“That's not everything, actually. You know how you described Komaeda just a while ago? How he was like a cog and all that jazz?”

“Yeah?” he answered hesitantly, not knowing where Hajime was going with this.

“That's the exact feeling I had when _I_ woke up today. Except, I only felt the remains of that effect. My point is that if Komaeda was drugged, then so was I, and I didn't even eat or drink anything that day unless...” It downed on him, but then he remembered. ‘No, I didn't take a single sip of that coffee Komaeda made. And why the hell would he even drug himself? No, that wouldn't make any sense, even by his standards.’

“Unless...?” Ibuki repeated impatiently.

“It doesn't matter. Why are we even discussing this? It's not like somebody died or anything,” Mahiru said casually, drinking her tea, seemingly having lost interest in the conversation long time ago.

The brunet blinked once, then twice. Eventually he asked: “...Hey, is there anyone watching over him right now?”

++++++++

Hajime didn't know what he had expected. Of course nobody decided to check on Nagito, let alone feed him or escort him to the toilet.

When it comes to Kazuichi, that guy got highly frightened when he was reminded that if Nagito were to die because of neglect, Nekomaru and him would be considered the blackened soon to be executed. ‘Guess he didn't see that coming,’ Hajime thought, rolling his eyes.

It wasn't so much that he was concerned for the guy. He, in contrast to most of the others, realized how much of an easy target the boy had become and considering his current ‘popularity’, it wasn't a challenge to come up with a reason to murder him.

He stopped before the door that led into the room where the first case happened. The place where Byakuya died and where he was told that Nagito was, for some reason, situated.

He inhaled and exhaled deeply, saying to encourage himself: “Here I come.”

The sight that was offered to him was... relieving and disquieting at the same time. The boy was already aware of his surroundings and didn't seem injured, so that was good. However, these were the only calming elements to this scene.

His sickly pale body was haphazardly tossed on the floor and the entire length of his calves was bound around with a strong navy rope, tying his legs together. What came off as more worrying was the fact that his forearms were restrained behind his back with a chain in a particularly hazardous way to his health. To make it simple, it seemed too tight, but perhaps it was just him.

The white-haired lad didn't seem too bothered, so Hajime wasn't sure how whether it was such an uncomfortable position as it looked.

“Well, looks like Nidai and Souda had fun,” the brunet muttered, having shaken off the initial shock already.

“Ah, Hinata-kun, I had a feeling it would be you,” the bound boy stated with a shit-eating smile in spite of his position.

The brownish-eyed student ignored this remark of his. “How long have you been up?” he asked.

The grin inches above the ground only broadened as its owner ignored the ignorance of his own comment. “About an hour. Time passes slow like this, so I can't be sure,” he retorted and jiggled the chain behind his back a bit. “Care to elaborate?”

“The guys did this to you while you were asleep,” Hajime answered briefly, not feeling like talking to the guy. At that moment, he was already kneeling down and working on the rope around the boy's calves. Up close, it didn't seem as neatly and skillfully done as it looked from afar. Moreover, it was basically a mess of knots.

“Hm, and you're untying me because you feel sorry for me, Hinata-kun?”

The restrained boy only received a roll of the forest-colored eyes as an answer, therefore he led the chat on by himself: “I wonder if they put me in here just to torment me, to remind me of what I did. You won't make me see things your way through guilt.” Though it may allude to it, there wasn't a drop of bitterness in his voice.

There was only silence and he interpreted it as a cue to shut up. Instead, he pushed forward with his words: “You're the only one who managed to keep the last pieces of hope in me.”

Finally, green-brown hard and blunt gaze locked with the gray mischievous ones, communicating without using words: ‘Where are you going with this?’

“Do you need help finding your lost self-preservation instinct, Hinata-kun?” To exaggerate his point, the teen with snow on the roof exploited the fact his legs were now free and he brought his knee up under the brunet's chin. After it made contact via a butterfly touch, he lifted the chin up.

A deep furrow showed on Hajime's face as he gritted his teeth, their mutual eye lock not breaking. His temper almost made him snap, but reason held him back. The fight of the two reflected in his orbs, but the winner wasn't decided as it all was prematurely ended.

Nagito speaking was what stopped the internal argument, the amused twinkle in his own eyes suddenly out the nearest window: “Are you that determined to avoid me now that you won't even respond to a provocation, Hinata-kun? Do you perhaps regret the fact that you stopped me from getting myself killed by Monokuma? Is it because the others now suspect you as well?”

‘What...? I...’

While the pale face was perfectly unreadable, the voice gave off a sense of disappointment, loneliness or perhaps regret. He couldn't tell which one, if not all of them.

The tanner one of the two couldn't help but let his features tone down a bit. He softly forced the knee down with one of his arms, meeting with no resistance. ‘Seriously, this guy... I don't understand him at all.’ Once the boy on the floor silently rolled on his hip, Hajime moved on to the chain behind his back to find... that it clearly was unnecessarily tight.

After a second, the brunet said, frowning at the red marks around Nagito's wrists: “Once I get this off, I'll let you use the bathroom and we'll get you something to eat. You've been unconscious for about thirty-six hours already, so-”

**grooowl**

At the mention of eating, Hajime's stomach made an approving sound, making its presence known. Simultaneously, it reminded the brunet of the dryness on his tongue. Needless to say, the sound was much to his embarrassment.

The angle and the ball of white hair with pinkish ends on Nagito's head hid the ever-so-wide smirk forming on his lips. “Could it be, Hinata-kun, that you delayed your meal just because of me?”

The silly, smug smile only grew in size once an irritated, muffled growl reached Nagito's eager ears.

Hajime then simply uttered: “Yeah, yeah, shut your trap.” With that, the chain's grasp lost remarkably in force and it slid off the marked wrists.

Finally free, the gray-orbed boy slowly sat up and stretched his arms high above his head and rolled them, making a circle with each. He then rolled his head backwards too see the brunet standing behind him and added: “I am honored.”

“Fuck you,” Hajime grunted, having run out of actual comebacks. After that he circled his way around the white-haired boy to face him properly.

Nagito chuckled. He then let gravity take control over his arms and started checking his wrists, occasionally rubbing the red skin. “On a serious note now, did you say I was asleep for thirty-something hours?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Clarification No. 1: No, I didn't forget to get back to the remaining two things under Hinata's bed. It's just that they aren't relevant enough at this point to justify the amount of your attention they would take from the actually important things.


	8. Dreams Accumulate Clues (Part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hajime and Nagito finally get to eat something, various stuff and some bad shit happens and now it looks like they have a big problem coming their way in the next chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, here's a new chapter. I hope you like it.
> 
> This is so far the longest chapter I've written. It literally needs only 11 words to have the word count of 6K. Well, at least you have a bit more stuff to read before the next chapter comes.
> 
> As for Hajime asking Nagito questions, that will come in the chapter after the following one. Basically, after they wake up.
> 
> I'd like to ask something those who have subscribed to the story. Do you get a notification whenever I make small changes without actually adding a new chapter? I understand that it can get quite annoying if that's the case, so I want to know whether I should make those changes at a time (like once a month) to reduce the number of notifying emails. 
> 
> By the way, does anybody have a list of what the characters refer to each other (-kun, -san, etc.) in the Japanese dub? Only if it's not a problem.

After giving Nagito the rundown of the strange phenomenon that only seemed to affect the two of them, as promised, Hajime gave the other some privacy in the nearest restroom. Later the duo found itself in the Mirai Hotel, this time in the newly-built structure.

“Huh, Monokuma really got to work while we were in dreamland... With that being said, I don't remember having had any dreams throughout, haha,” the gray-orbed lad remarked as they passed through the ground floor.

Hajime didn't say anything, though had to admit, it was put in the correct order very well. All of the windows, that were once shattered by the blast wave, were now shining clean, letting in as much sunlight as possible, and there wasn't even the tinniest shard of glass left on the floor.

Nagito continued: “Come to think of it, I don't think I heard the morning announcement. Did you hear it, Hinata-kun?”

“No, I didn't either. For all I know, Monokuma's missing again,” Hajime answered and halted suddenly, realizing something. Already standing on the creaky stairs, he turned around to face his companion. “Hey, wait a moment! Didn't you say it's been an hour since your awakening? Of course you wouldn't get to hear it that late!”

“Hm, one hour or five, what's the difference?” was the response.

‘Seriously,’ Hajime thought at that, shaking his head a bit in disbelief, and got to climbing the stairs again. He'd almost forgotten whom he had the (dis)pleasure to talk with. It just showed how little he minded having his time wasted by other people.

**step**

**step**

He listened to the stairs creak down below him under Nagito's weight, the same variant of a creak he heard when he woke up two days ago on that couch. With all of the nonsense that was going on, he wouldn't have been surprised if the person behind him were someone else, so being reassured about its validity was rather soothing.

However, the fact that he even considered there being an imposter made him feel like a total paranoiac. ‘This isn't good for my mental health...’ he thought bitterly to himself.

When he reached the upper floor, Mahiru, Akane, Peko and Mikan came into full view. Akane was the last one still eating, the others seemed to just be hanging around.

“Geez, so you _finally_ decided it was time to eat?” Mahiru called his way.

The moment Nagito arrived, the people's faces turned sour.

“...And you brought him with you,” the red-headed girl added with much less enthusiasm, the expression of hers freezing on her face.

“Ah, good morning, everyone. I hope you all had a good night's sleep,” Nagito greeted, smiling a light smile as usual, disregarding that remark of Mahiru's altogether.

There was awkward silence as they both picked something to eat and sat down thereafter. Needless to say, the gray-orbed lad found himself a spot far from the others with a justification saying that he wouldn't want to ruin their meal, even though even Akane had been already finished by that point and Hajime was the only one to start eating.

Hajime wanted to express his disapproval, knowing full well they were in the kind of situation that required people sticking together and maintaining positive relationships. The question was whether it wasn't too late. However, the thing that actually made him keep his mouth shut was the reminder of what Nagito said mere minutes ago: “Is it because the others now suspect you as well?”

That question hit hard. He hadn't even considered that possibility before then and frankly, it worried him. ‘Better not tell anyone about the gun...’ He let his eyes wander on their faces to try and guess what they were thinking.

First, there was nothing to read and recognize in Peko's expression, her usual poker face put on display. Second was Mahiru, whose facial skin was wrinkled a bit with discomfort, and when it came to Akane... one didn't need to be observant to see she was starting to eye the food again. What actually caught his eye was Mikan's vividly conflicted and uncertain look.

He found it painful to watch her waver from saying something. After gulping down the spoonful in his mouth, he prompted: “What is it, Tsumiki?”

“A-ah?”

“You want to say something, don't you?” Hajime explained.

Mahiru's green-brown eyes turned kindly to the timid girl sitting next to her. “Hm? Please tell us.”

“...Um, t-thank you,” Mikan mumbled, her eyes downcast, looking in her lap. She then finally looked up with a little bit of dedication and met Hajime's taupe green orbs. “U-uh, could you please d-describe to me any s-side effects y-your sleeping problems might h-have? I-I am just a-a-a nurse, but I m-might know h-how to help.”

People around seemed to cock an ear in interest.

“Well,” the greenish-eyed brunet started dawdlingly, having to think about it before saying more, “today I woke up with basically no energy and couldn't fall asleep, yet somehow I feel as if I have regenerated it as the day passed. I feel like I got energy from the sun or some shit.”

“Dude, what the fuck..?” Kazuichi, who had just arrived, cut in Hajime's speech, ruffling his hair and accidentally shaking his beanie off down on the floor. He bent over to pick it back up while the dark-haired person, that came with him, didn't bat an eye. Despite his tendency for having a neutral air around him, Gundham seemed kinda annoyed for some reason.

“Why are you two together? I thought you didn't like each other,” Peko pointed out.

Kazuichi huffed. “Well, I found a bunch of electronic gadgets on one of the islands. Naturally, I thought of making some kind of communicator to help us in this situation. So, I asked Sonia-san whether she'd like to see my handiwork. You know, to make an impression. And you know what Sonia-san did?”

“What did she do?” Akane asked.

“At first she seemed impressed, but out of nowhere she ditched me and told this guy here to come with me instead!” he exclaimed, pointing his finger at Gundham. “I just don't understand women, man!” he uttered, collapsing into a chair next to Hajime.

The brunet thought, feeling sorry for the young princess: ‘I think I understand her completely...’ In the meantime, Akane was laughing her ass off.

“And don't even get me started what his little beasts did!” he continued as the Four Devas of Destruction peaked out of the safety of Gundham's purple scarf. Needless to say, the boy with scar over his left eye wasn't too pleased about the name Kazuichi used.

“What, there's more? Do tell!” Akane called, an excited expression on her face.

“They suddenly crawled out, jumped on the floor and ran towards the electronics! They actually started biting the damn cables! Like, they dig in as if they hadn't eaten for a week!”

At that, Hajime got serious. “Was anything damaged?”

As if contaminated by Hajime's change in mood, Kazuichi became noticeably less dramatic. He just sighed. “No, everything seems to be fine. It took us a long time to actually get them to come out of their hidings, so I didn't get any work done, though...”

Mahiru suddenly made herself known, sounding fairly ticked off: “Jeez, typical men! Nobody cares what stupidities you have been up to! Now, let Tsumiki here speak!” With a new encouraging smile, she then turned to the slightly cowering girl: “You can go on now.”

“U-um,” Mikan started, locking eyes with Hajime's, “is t-there anything else?”

“You mean any more side effects?”

She slowly nodded.

“Not that I can think of...” He then remembered. “No, wait. Yesterday, well, the day before yesterday, something weird happened. You know how I was taking the dirty cups upstairs? I mean the ones that Komaeda gave us his excuse for a coffee in.”

The group of Gundham, Kazuichi, and Peko nodded. The remaining girls, who didn't know about the cups, didn't say anything, so Hajime went on: “I don't think it was anything important, but when I was climbing the stairs, there was a sudden rush of pain in my palm. It was... superficial. As if something had scratched me, but there was no wound.”

“Can you show us?” Gundham urged.

Hesitant, Hajime reached out his right arm and rotated his wrist so that they could see the absence of an injury. “As I said, there's nothing there.”

“Tsumiki-san?” Peko pressed lightly for an explanation. It still seemed to tense the small girl up a fair bit.

“U-um, I-I'm so s-sorry. I don't t-think I've ever heard of something like t-that.”

There was a short gap filled with silence. Then, what could be easily mistaken for mane instead of hair came into view as its owner leaned over Hajime's shoulder to take a look himself. “Huh, interesting,” Nagito muttered, his gray eyes half-lidded.

“Gah! How long when have _you_ been here?” Kazuichi exclaimed.

Nagito, however, wasn't about to respond in any way. As if magnetized, his eyes remained firmly glued on the palm as he circled the table to get to a better access point. “What exact spot on your palm felt like it was scratched?” he asked patiently, still keeping his eyes clouded with thoughts locked on the seemingly pristine and unharmed skin.

**blink**

“Huh...? Oh, it started at the base of the thumb and ran across to the wrist.”

The young man with snow on the roof leaned over a bit and the confused bunch around him did so as well, thinking whether he was able to see something they weren't. The moment Hajime decided to withdraw his right arm back, Nagito brought his finger to the peachy thumb and let the finger run down the instructed path.

“What are you...?” Hajime started while pulling his arm closer to himself, not seeing a point.

“There is a hard, a bit knobby and crumbly thin line jutting out from the skin,” Nagito informed, stepping back from the table. Once having met the forest-colored orbs of Hajime's, he added conclusively: “A scab.”

The occupants of the table all frowned in doubt and perplexment.

“...A scab?” Gundham repeated.

“Yes, a scab,” Nagito confirmed.

Hajime, keeping his scowl on, brought his left hand up on the table and repeated the very same process, using his index and middle finger. ‘He's... right?’ he thought, his black pupils widening a bit at the discovery, proceeding to blink once.

“Stop messing around!” Mahiru exclaimed as she tried with her own touch as well. “There's no way he's-- What the...? That can't be right!”

“S-seriously?” Kazuichi blurted out as he followed the red-head's lead.

Once everyone had realized that the invisible line of dry crust wouldn't disappear no matter how much they rubbed it, they withdrew their limbs back to themselves. Every single person, including Mikan, kept silent, not knowing what to think.

The Ultimate Lucky Student, who had been observing everyone with interest up until that point, spoke up: “...Won't you eat, Hinata-kun? You've been talking the whole time and haven't eaten anything. It's not good for your health to delay it so much.”

“Oh... right,” he mumbled in reply, having forgotten about his meal altogether. Finally, he brought his spoon to his lips and continued.

With that, those who were standing sat down, chairs creaking and disrupting the silence together with the brunet's spoon occasionally hitting the bowl he was eating from. I should be mentioned that Nagito returned to his distant corner seat.

The stillness in the air felt unbearable and as to comfort himself, Hajime asked: “Other that trying and failing to find Nanami, what else did everyone do yesterday?” He only stopped to say that and resumed eating.

“We were mostly exploring the islands. All except for young master,” Peko answered.

Halting once again, the brunet asked: “I thought there was nothing left to be explored...?”

Kazuichi took the lead of explaining: “Has nobody told you yet? All the islands are accessible now with Monokuma gone again. He's been missing ever since the night he blasted the ground floor's windows to shards.”

“Monobeasts disappeared as well, _that's_ why we can now cross the bridges,” Akane added.

Frowning at the now empty inside of his bowl, Hajime slowly lowered the spoon and set it inside. Then he started to get up.

“Well, that explains the lack of a morning announcement...” Nagito murmured.

Right after that, just as Hajime was up and walking towards the white-haired boy, Kazuichi said: “...Yeah, I meant to ask! What is _he_ doing here? He's not going to stay like this, is he?” Hajime stopped dead in his tracks.

‘I should have expected this...’ he thought, internally rolling his eyes. “What? No, I'll be taking him to his cabin and I'll tie him back up there.”

The pink-haired lad started to nod his head in approval before realizing something. “...Wait! Why his cabin?”

“...Why the old building?”

Kazuichi didn't know what to answer and kept his mouth shut.

‘Not that this is a good idea... although it's probably better than letting him do what he wants while unattended, I guess...’ Hajime justified internally, turning his attention to the above-mentioned lad. However, before their eyes could meet, something downed on him.

His head snapped to the heavily occupied table. “Wait a moment, did you really visit the remaining islands? Weren't you afraid of breaking the rules just like that?”

Mahiru responded after a sigh: “No, we checked. The rules don't mention anything about crossing the bridges to the islands that we haven't ‘unlocked’ yet, so to speak. Monobeasts were literally the only thing that kept us from moving freely around.”

“...Huh.”

Her voice got a bit feeble as she continued, looking down into her cup: “With Monokuma having been gone for so long, we aren't even sure if the rules are still in effect.”

“Nobody has dared to break one yet, though...” Kazuichi admitted.

At that, Hajime threw an eye on the lad with icy gray eyes to find him not reacting to that remark... although it was clear as a bell that he was listening closely. ‘Maybe it's for the best Komaeda has been and will be unable to do anything for now...’

With that having happened, he cued the already standing white-haired lad to follow him out the Mirai Hotel.

++++++++

“You better not try anything. I've had more than enough trials this week,” Hajime uttered as they entered the cabin. Before Nagito could say anything, he cut in: “And don't tell me that there's been _only_ one trial as of now. I know you were gonna say it and one is already too much, so don't bother pointing that out.”

This earned him one of those damned chuckles of his. “Haha, how defensive.”

That remark made the taupe green-orbed youngster hot under the collar, but he managed to suppress his initial reaction, knowing full well he had dug up his own grave. He simply gave him a glare, closing the door behind them.

“You better lock yourself once I leave,” Hajime informed.

“Um, I don't think I'll be able to, Hinata-kun,” was the answer as a hand gesture representing being handcuffed was shown. “I can _try_ , though...”

“...Oh. Well, too bad, I guess,” the brunet muttered with a shrug.

“Heh.”

Neither one said anything more as Nagito sat on his bed. After slipping off his double zipper shoes, he held his arms in the air before his chest, looking pointedly at the chain and rope that the duo had retrieved from the old building before coming here, both hanging from Hitana's hands and having their ends dragged long the wooden floor.

“Do you mind running by me the reason why you decided to get rid of me at my place instead of where I was previously, Hinata-kun? You know what they say. Out of sight, out of mind,” the white-haired boy finished and then other stopped in his tracks to think.

He finally said: “...It's easier to keep an eye on you when you're near.”

“Keep your friends close and your enemies closer?” Nagito murmured, his gaze lifted, voice neutral, lips smiling and eyes sad, all on display. The brunet was already nearing him.

“I meant the fact that this makes you less of a shooting duck. You're the one jumping to conclusions,” Hajime said, trying to sound apathetic. ‘I doubt he didn't consider the possibility of becoming a target...’

After a few seconds, the dark snowy orbs warmed up a bit. “...I see.”

Hajime spaced out, still thinking to himself: ‘...This is what came to his mind first... which implies he cares about his life less than how we feel about him...? That can't be. He clearly doesn't care about his reputation. Or does he care about living so little?’ His face contorted in a frown which made the other cock his head to the side.

“...Hinata-kun? Is there something wrong?”

He realized that he had grown unaware of his surroundings and shook his head to wake himself. “Forget it.” Lowering his gaze to the pale hands in the air, he said: “Put them behind your back.”

Despite that having one's upper limbs tied that way isn't the most pleasant experience, Nagito didn't protest and complied with the request, his hands burying themselves in the bed sheets. Once Hajime was seated and the other's hands were where they were supposed to be, both youngsters came to a realization of how inaccessible the wrists now were. Well, more like hardly accessible.

“Pfft,” Nagito let out and in order to solve this, he lifted his legs onto the bed and lay down onto his stomach. With a few more movements like putting his arms back behind the back and placing his head on the side, so that he wouldn't breath through the pillow, he was done.

“...Well okay then.” Hajime uttered, dropping the rope on the sheets at the foot of the bed. He hesitantly moved at the top of him, straddling his hips. ‘This feels so wrong... Do I have to do this?’

**sigh**

After breathing out heavily, Hajime gave up. “Just roll around,” he muttered, lifting his bottom a bit to give the other some space to do as he was told.

There was no complaint this time either and after the fact, Nagito commented, raising his hands high: “Changed your mind, Hinata-kun?”

“This is a more natural position for arms to be in,” he said simply, wrapping the chain around while making sure to have the sleeves between the skin and metal.

Hajime expected some kind of a sassy remark back, but the only thing he got was: “You are too kind for your own good.”

‘I really am not...’ Still working on the chain, he didn't even look up when retorting: “No, I'm simply acting like a human being. You should try that sometime.”

With no response getting to his ears and without giving the other a look, after he was done Hajime switched his legs on each side of the warm body underneath and turned around to face Nagito's long legs.

Suddenly, a question came: “I wouldn't mind anything you might ever want to do to me, anyway. To treat me this way... What is your motive?”

Hajime cocked a brow and turned his head to get a good look at his expression. He looked... curious? “Being cynical is my role, you know,” he said and turned back, getting to fastening the rope around his fascinatingly thin ankles. ‘Not to mention he stole my line...’

Out loud he later added: “I simply don't want any more people getting their lives unnecessarily taken away from them, including you, that's all there is to it.”

“Hm? And I take it you're going to protect me?”

There was some kind of movement behind the forest-eyed boy and a shift in the distribution of force acting on the mattress. It took him a second to realize that the white-haired boy was getting up and before he could fully react, his neck was situated in the gap between the arms and the tied wrists were just in front of his nose. Nagito did all of that while refraining from touching him in any way.

“Your kindness will be your downfall, Hinata-kun. It's the reason you turned your back on me and as a consequence I could break your neck right now if I tried.”

Hajime finally moved, calmly grabbing the wrists and pushing them up and behind his head. In reaction, Nagito let his spine roll back slowly and eventually hit the bed as he was told: “Don't be ridiculous. Whatever your cause is, killing me spontaneously like this would bring you nothing.”

The brunet finished talking the moment he was done with making a knot on the rope and he removed himself from the top of the second lad. As he was awkwardly standing up, he noticed something, a piece of paper that he remembered very well:

  


TAKE A LOOKSIE UNDER THE BED!

  


‘...Did everyone receive a gun or what...?’ he thought, deeply disturbed.

What brought him back to reality was Nagito talking: “You talk as if you could predict me when I cannot even predict myself.” As he finished that sentence, his eyes unglued from the ceiling to move and rest on the brunet's face and he sat up.

Hajime rolled his brownish eyes. “And you talk as if you'd murder _me_ of all people here.”

“Oh? Could you be referring to the fact I'm treated by you much better than by everyone else combined? While I appreciate that endlessly, I don't appreciate it at all at the same time.”

“You don't make any sense,” he muttered, ruffling his hair. Then he sighed. “Just why do you have to do all this so hard? Why can't you just-”

“What am I making hard? You see, Hinata-kun, if people treat me well, bad things happen in return. Although I'd love to live a happy life, my wishes don't change the fact that my life is a swing that moves from happiness to despair and back. So, with all of that being said, I want you all to abuse me.”

He went on: “I don't mind if you beat me up, throw me against a wall or even spill my guts. You can even rape me if you want. Granted, it won't be even classified as rape if I consent to it, so--”

**SLAP**

“Don't _ever_ say such a disgusting thing again. Someone might take you seriously,” the lightly sun-kissed boy exclaimed in his face, holding him by the collar of his hood and failing to keep himself from sounding emotional. “You keep bitching about hope, yet you have none yourself.”

“...I know, but it's not a requirement to have it myself to boost yours. That's all that matters, Hinata-kun.”

“You seriously have no hopes and dreams of your own?” he pressed.

“This wish to make your potential bloom is the only one that can be fulfilled, so yes basically,” Nagito uttered sadly, making a plastic smile afterwards.

++++++++

Hajime found himself on the pier outside, strolling with no in advance established destination, buried deep in his thoughts.

“Seriously, what did he mean by claiming the rest of his dreams cannot be achieved? He's not a fucking cursed princess or something like that... Well, a prince if anything, but that's not the point,” he murmured, frustrated by not being able to understand. He suddenly stopped walking. “I really need to stop talking to myself.”

He resumed walking, aiming for the central island for no particular reason. ‘No sense in trying to comprehend him for now. More importantly, what is it that Monokuma put under his bed? Is it a weapon as well? Did everyone else get one? ...No, they would all be panicking over it by now if that were the case. But why only me and him? That doesn't make sense either.’

Before he knew it he had already crossed the bridge and was already standing before the black countdown clock, the one that the Jabberwock Island's characteristic statue was previously replaced with by Monokuma.

Giving it an intent, pointed stare, he carefully observed the red numbers counting down and subsequently he was reminded of a bomb. He was about to leave when a thought downed on him, hitting him hard over the head and making his spine freeze.

‘No... That can't be,’ he denied as he re-read the remaining time. There was too little time left compared to what one would expect.

A male voice entered the scene: “Hey, buddy! What ya doing?” It was Kazuichi, his mood positively affected by Monokuma seemingly not being around and Nagito being immobile.

Hajime didn't even turn around. He instead waited for the newcomer to arrive at his side while he kept his eyes glued to the numbers. “Say, Souda... Do you see anything weird about this countdown?”

“Hm? Let me see... Hey! It says that passed more time than actually passed! It's off by _days_! Did it accelerate when we weren't looking? Or maybe it's just malfunctioning?”

Hajime sighed. “I don't know. It could as well be Monokuma messing around.”

“Man, what the hell! I don't wanna blow up this early!” Kazuichi exclaimed, slouching a bit in fear. “Should I go tell everyone?”

Thinking a bit, the brunet answered after a few seconds, the countdown going down to make him realize how long he was taking. “...Yeah, you do that. They should know.”

After that short conversation, the pink-haired boy ran off to do his job and left Hajime all alone again.

The normal-looking, peachy-skinned lad had to admit that while Kazuichi wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, he felt like the boy didn't have any bad intentions. There was this option that he was faking his dullness, considering that he was, in fact, the Ultimate Mechanic, someone people would expect to have some level of intelligence. Hajime, however, didn't buy into this. It just didn't seem right.

“I _hope_ it's just Monokuma messing around. If not...” he trailed off, staring directly into the nearest camera, realizing he was talking out loud again. ‘Thinking of Monokuma's shenanigans, we-- well, _I_ have to do something about whatever potential danger there is in Komaeda's cabin... aside from Komaeda himself. Can't really do much about him.’

He made a few steps, eyes closed and arms crossed on his humanly fragile chest. ‘Though I do admit, we can't keep him that way. Restraining him is only a temporary solution.’ Once Hajime collected his thoughts, he came to a stop and opened his eyes. ‘For now I'll remove the most alarming hazard.’

‘The problem is... the thing is now right-fucking-under the one person that mustn't know about it. I could wait for him to leave, but _I'm_ the one that has to be with him when he's loose. I could ask someone else to do it instead, but that would be too suspicious, not as much to the others as to Komaeda... Making _him_ question my actions is the last thing I'd want.’ 

Sighing, he thought: ‘I'm going to need help.’

He then took out his tablet that he and everyone else was provided with at the beginning of this mess. With a few swipes, he got to see the map and the inhabitants of each location. Although he was usually glad for the fact that he couldn't see who exactly it was at a given location, this wasn't the time to appreciate it.

He looked at the list of everyone. ‘So for starters... Nanami, Togami, Hanamura and Komaeda are out of question. Akane? Meh. Kuzuryuu? He likes to keep to himself. He wouldn't want to get involved. Pekoyama? Maybe...? I don't really know.’

Just like that he considered each person and their qualities to do the job. His most obvious picks were already dead and / or missing, so it was a tough choice, but eventually he arrived at the name of Sonia Nevermind.

++++++++

“Will you be able to do it?” Hajime leaning on the library's table, looking the Ultimate Princess straight in the blue eyes of hers.

“After you escort him into the Mirai Hotel to eat his meal, intrude on Komaeda-san's cabin and take anything that might pose a threat in the future if left in his hands?” the blonde repeated.

He nodded slowly, anticipating her disapproval.

“Of course, I will! I shall be like that heroine that seems like a villain the whole time, but at the very end she turns out to be doing what she's doing for the common good of the people!” came out of her mouth, stars appearing in her eyes as she spoke.

**blink - blink**

“...Right.” 

He felt baffled at how she reacted to his proposal. Although it was refreshing to see she wasn't as stiff as anticipated, at the same time it made him feel a bit guilty for having had preconceptions about her personality.

She suddenly turned serious: “The problem is... What am I supposed to do after I find something? The best way to dispose of it would be by throwing it in the sea. However, I am afraid that is against the rules.”

In response, he sighed softly, being fully aware of this complication. “Yeah, I know...”

After a few seconds of silence and with some psychological effort being exerted, the graceful gal offered, hand on the small chin: “I believe that it might be attainable, actually. As you well know, Monokuma's not around, so as far as I don't get recorded by these surveillance cameras, I should be in the clear.”

‘Wasn't she the one to admit this was a bad idea in the first place, anyway?’

He didn't manage to cut in and could only frown as she explained without stopping: “You see, Hinata-san, I do feel ashamed for not stepping in sooner back then. A good monarch has to avoid letting her people die in vain, no matter how troublesome that person may be. This has been one of my greatest failures as of yet.”

Hajime, though still frowning, was pleasantly surprised by her sense of responsibility, but at the same time he thought she was going too far. “Don't blame yourself for the way things escalated, Sonia. If anything, you're the only one rational in that situation. I may have reacted first, but I got just as emotional myself as everyone else. To this moment I don't know why I couldn't keep my cool...”

He waited for her to talk while thinking: ‘No sense in pointing fingers now. Monokuma stepped in, so... Wait, why would he so that...?’

“...Hinata-san...” she started, but noticed his facial expression, “is there something wrong?”

++++++++

Unfortunately, the two of them couldn't find a reason as to why Monokuma decided to show up at that exact moment and stopped them from doing anything stupid. Giving up on finding some sense to this and after eventually deciding what to do with any potential weapon Sonia might find, that is hiding it in her cabin until they find a better place, they spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out. Once it was time to part and to perform their roles, they did, playing according to the plan.

Hajime and Nagito's breakfast having been late in the forenoon that day, combined with the fact that the two of them ate a larger amount of food than usual, Hajime decided to skip lunch.

And so, here it was... the evening, accompanied by crepuscular rays just like that morning was. As the sky danced with the colors of red, orange and dark royal blue, most occupants of this lonely island were situated in the Mirai Hotel's cafeteria. Lights inside were on to compensate for the lack of sunlight.

Aside from Sonia, the few absent students of those who were still alive were Hajime's midpoint of his thoughts: ‘Kuzuryuu's not here. Well, that's hardly surprising. ...I wonder what's up with Mioda being absent, though...’

Understandably, Nagito was present, this time sitting next to Hajime, eating silently. When it came to the rest, other than doing the same as the duo, a rather louder groups had formed, discussing various random topics in a relatively cheerful manner. Hajime realized there was an unwritten rule being followed. Kazuichi had informed him about telling everyone about the countdown and now it seemed they were devoted to avoiding this topic... along with other distressing topics.

Then, _he_ had to do it: “So... is Nanami-san still... unaccounted for?”

In reaction to Nagito's question, the room in its entirety fell silent and the brunet next to him slowly breathed in and out.

“Hm, I guess I have my answer now,” the youngster with snowy roof commented on the lack of verbal response, which was substituted by their facial reactions. “I suppose Monokuma isn't anywhere to be found either?”

After that something happened. Something that could have been expected, yet it stunned most of the students.

The monitor up above lit up and Monokuma's horrid face showed up. “How rude! I've been in this room the whole time, just not physically!”

“Monokuma!” somebody shouted. Hajime didn't quite catch who, being too emotional inside.

“I'm sad, you know. I gave you so much freedom, yet everyone behaved accordingly to the rules.”

“...What?” somebody in the background murmured.

That was the moment Hajime recovered from the initial shock and had his thoughts recollected again. He wasn't the only one and he was assured of that fact when Mahiru pointed out: “If you wanted us to do that, then why didn't you just stay hidden until one of us actually _did_ go against the rules? Why did you decide to appear now?”

“Ah? Oh well, as much as I'd like to just watch and wait for somebody to cross the line, it wouldn't be worth it, anyway.”

“Why...?” Kazuichi asked.

Nagito then stepped out of the metaphorical shadow. “Could it be... the fact that us having the courage to do something like that requires us to stop fearing this game first? If he were to wait, we would eventually lose all of our fears and the mood would significantly rise. You don't want that, do you Monokuma?”

“Ding, ding, ding! How observant of you, Komaeda-kun! I knew you wouldn't disappoint.”

That compliment was left ignored by Nagito.

Monokuma continued: “Now then, shall we go back to beating, slicing and slaughtering in general? You know, all the good stuff. I'm real bored already.”

“That's not gonna happen,” Hajime spoke up firmly, his greenish eyes fixated on the monitor, not fidgeting a single bit.

“...Oh? Please do humor me, Hinata-kun. What do you propose as a procedure to prevent this killing game from inevitably escalating to the point of there being a sole survivor?”

“I...” he wavered.

The robotic bear jumped in: “Are you sure there will be no more victims?”

He picked himself up. “We won't allow it.”

“That's right!” Nekomaru helped.

“Yeah!” Akane cheered.

“How hopeful. How... disgusting,” Monokuma remarked. “I wonder, what would you be willing to bet on the motion that you're right? Would you, perhaps, bet a life or two? Hinata-kun's, for example?” Hajime became alerted at the mention of his name.

Once someone in the room agreed without thinking, it was obvious that was what he wanted to hear as his red eye lit up with corrupted excitement. Hajime and literally everyone else realized how bad this was.

He continued: “Upupu. If that's the case, how about we hold a little Class Trial of sorts? Yes, that sounds nice. With that being said, gather at the usual location now. I'll give you the instructions there.”

The occupants of the room fell silent, looking at each other, most of them terrified. Eventually Hajime grew uncomfortably well aware of the fact that all gazes finally rested on him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have recently added a new dynamic. I assume you have already noticed that the narrator and the characters in reality use first names, while the characters in the ‘dreams’ use last names. As I have already established, Japan was heavily influenced by the other countries that it had to cooperate with, so I decided it would be interesting if Japanese people became less formal as a result in this story.


	9. Dreams Accumulate Clues (Part 3)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The 77th class assembles to participate in a Class Trial meant to find a way to prevent any more murder cases taking place. Things escalate in a different way than what they would ever imagine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo, this is the longest chapter as of yet. There was a lot of stuff I needed to fit into it. I do hope you enjoy it.
> 
> I'll use this opportunity to tell you that there's currently no plot hole crisis. This month I had 2 instances of having to come up with explanations for things that had already been published, but I managed.
> 
> I've actually made a tiny change in Hajime's impression of his first ‘dream’. Previously he was positive that he had relived a memory in his sleep. Now he realizes how flawed it was. It didn't make sense it the long run.
> 
> What I want to say is that I do not intend to change anything important in order to avoid confusing you any further. However, if I find a plot hole that I cannot fix so easily, I will be forced to change the previous chapters in a way. If that happens, I'll inform you about such changes, so please do read my notes.
> 
> You see, I care about this story too much and cannot have it full of plot holes. I hate plot holes. It just shows the lack of care...
> 
> Thank you for reading and enjoy!

The orange sun outside was already in the process of setting. Just like this star was about to settle out of view, the thoughts of these students were settling in a semi-orderly mess. What was going on in their heads was like when you dump a pile of dirt and gravel in a fish tank. It may sink eventually, but it won't stop being a clutter just like that.

**sigh**

Hajime felt like there was a dumpling stuck in his esophagus and a pile of rocks at the bottom of his stomach. Nobody had said a word to him since the order to go to the courtroom and right now everyone was gathered inside the elevator, taking a ridiculously long elevator ride down to the underground beneath the Monokuma Rock.

‘Just how did I get myself in this pickle...? How am I supposed to think of something to stop us from murdering each other?’ He shook his head violently. ‘No, I need to stop. If _we all_ managed to solve Togami's case, then we can do this as well.’

Rolling his spine as to make himself stand straight, he turned on his heel to face the people behind his back. In reaction, some glued their eyes on him, but let go almost immediately.

The vast majority of his acquaintances bore unreadable expressions, their sparkless and basically void eyes either downcast or staring in the distance. The psychologically more fragile ones couldn't and didn't hide their qualms. When it came to the part of body language that isn't related to the face area, interestingly enough, half the class had their arms crossed and their bodies were visibly stiff as a whole.

Some were talking, but only in whispery voices. It seemed that Fuyuhiko was getting a report from Peko as to what was going on. After all, he wasn't in the hotel cafeteria when this trial was fixed and he only heard Monokuma's lines via a monitor. Similarly, Mahiru and Gundham happened to be clarifying the same to Sonia.

Once Hajime realized that he couldn't read their lips nor could he hear the silent lines of people conversing properly, he dropped his efforts.

Instead, the sun-kissed male decided on breaking the tranquility of the air. Out of all people he picked Kazuichi as the boy was close and wasn't talking to anyone else as of that moment. The problem was, what to talk to him about?

He took a few seconds to consider his options, but something stopped him from saying anything.

It is believed and even known that gazes do not weigh a single pound and also cannot exert any type of force. And yet, his shoulder felt like it was pushed down by an invisible force. As a consequence, the entire body of his turned as a rag doll around an axis that went through that held-down shoulder.

...Basically he just turned around.

His final discovery was made when his brownie-green orbs met in a lock with a different pair of eyes. The gray circles of the lad leaning on the shaft wall glimmered faintly, eyelids coming close to closing up ever so slightly. However, the invisible connection was torn apart in a second.

Nagito left Hajime be and instead, his eyes jumped over the brunet's shoulder and fixated on a different point of interest. He seemed to zoom in and focus on it as his dark pupil changed its size.

Then, the chilly pewter eyes returned to look in Hajime's face and, as if pointing with them, he shifted them behind him swiftly.

‘What is he up to this time...?’ Almost automatically, the brunet turned his head to the back of the elevator, this time to meet with a dismayed, light blue pair of orbs. They were Sonia's.

Some sort of a staring triangle was formed. Firstly, Sonia broke the mutual gaze with Hajime to meet up with Nagito. Then, the brunet turned his attention back to the white-haired boy's face who suddenly got a knowing smirk when both suspicious stares became directed at him. And finally, the confused duo shared an anticipatory look.

‘Shoot...! Just how did he...?’ Hajime thought. It was clear an... interesting discussion was to occur soon. ‘Once the elevator empties out...’

Subsequently, he remembered what the reason, that they were there, even was. His anxiety made a reappearance and he tried calming himself down while letting his orbs jump from one face to another. ‘There's thirteen of us. We should be able to do this together. Satisfying Komaeda _is not_ a priority right now... Was that action _ever_ on my to-do list anyway...?’

Suddenly frowning, he repeated the process. And again, counting. ‘Just where is...? No... You can't be serious. Not another one.’

“Is there a problem?” Mahiru asked, uncrossing her forearms, having noticed his alarmed state. Everyone else looked front.

“...Has anyone seen Mioda?” the brunet finally said.

That was the moment the elevator came to a stop and the door and gate before it both slid open. While most inhabitants of the small, crowded space just kept eyeing each other with panicked faces, Akane ran out, almost knocking Hajime over in the process. Nekomaru did as she did and reluctantly, people followed them.

In no way was the wordlessly fixed three-sided chat forgotten. The thing was, it wasn't wanted anymore. Neither of them seemed too eager after realizing Mioda was missing. While still paying attention to what was going on in the middle of the courtroom, the trio silently held close together. Awkwardly, might I add.

Hajime took only a few steps closer and halted as he reached the threshold of the elevator. This way he could partake in discussions with both people before and behind him. Eventually he looked over his own shoulder and after what could be described as a failed communication, he entered deeper in the room and left the rest of the group to disperse itself. ‘I can deal with Komaeda later,’ he thought, walking.

++++++++

The courtroom was different. It seemed that Monokuma tried to make it resemble an actual classroom for some reason. Although there were no typical school desks, the space of the room was limited by a blackboard and a few bulletin boards on wheels. Hajime couldn't read what the excessive amount of identical papers, that were pinned to the boards, said. What he could see, however, is that there were photos of the deceased and missing students, Mioda included, printed on them.

“So he knew,” the brunet murmured, giving Monokuma a pointed look.

Ever since entering, there had been nothing but shouting and accusations of Monokuma doing something behind the scenes. Unsurprisingly, Monokuma did not concede to that idea and told them that they should be more keen on keeping an eye on others if they don't want their friends disappearing.

At the moment the students were already past the futile phase of attempts of getting any information out of the robotic plushie. Although nobody could accept another of their friends having went missing so easily, they slowly began to behave more sensibly if nothing more. Right now they were watching the distasteful taste of his when it came to decorating while at the same time taking in another loss on their side.

There was a tap on Hajime's shoulder.

“Do you see what the Four Devas of Destruction and I do?” Gundham asked with suspicion in his voice.

The brunet looked up from one of the missing papers lying on the ground up to the man's pale face. He didn't understand the ebony-haired boy's question at first, but he soon followed his line of sight to have his own eyes land on a pre-prepared post. It was standing right at the Ultimate Musician's spot, her photo in a frame fixed to it.

Obviously, everyone had already noticed the post, but it was at this moment they started to acknowledge something deeper about it.

The photo was covered with a big, bloody pink question mark.

Similarly, there were three more posts just like this one in the room. While Byakuya and Teruteru's images were both crossed out, Chiaki's had the same symbol on it as Ibuki's. As what only could be interpreted as a sick joke, Teruteru's cross mark looked like a fork paired with a knife.

“Does this mean... they might be fine?” Sonia suggested what everyone else was thinking. An inner uproar was caused inside them, making them breathe more easily.

After a moment of silence, Hiyoko asked: “Hey, what do the question marks mean exactly?”

“What do ya mean? A question mark means something's uncertain, obviously!” Kazuichi stated with what seemed to be a inkling towards a sneer on his face.

Peko joined the conversation: “I have my doubts that is what she had in mind, but I don't think it is appropriate of me to put things in her mouth.”

Caused by the phrase that the vibrant red-eyed gal used at the end of her sentence, Kazuichi got a cheeky, almost perverted grin on his pink lips. While most occupants of the courtroom didn't understand that reaction, Hajime regretted having gotten the hint. His forest-colored orbs rolled.

“What _did_ you mean, Saionji?” Hajime asked the orange-dressed girl patiently.

“What I _meant_ is whether it means that we don't know about their state _or_ that Monokuma _himself_ doesn't know.”

“That is, indeed, a valid point,” Sonia commented.

“O-of course!” Kazuichi exclaimed, not really thinking whether it actually was that way.

“Well, Monokuma!?” Akane cued.

“Wha~? Why should I know?” the bear let out.

Hajime jumped in: “He clearly knows. He has surveillance cameras all over the place.”

“...”

“...”

“...Hm, you got me there, Hinata-kun. But you know what? I won't tell you about their whereabouts, anyway. So, with that being said, why don't you all take your places? It's time for me to reestablish who has the high ground here.”

The bearer of an unknown talent growled silently and had his ahoge twitch with frustration and a bit of distress, slowly starting to walk and aim for his spot as he was ordered. ‘Here it is...’ he thought.

A grip around his upper arm made him stop dead in his tracks. Once he turned his head in the corresponding direction, he almost bumped his nose into Nagito's. The lad didn't seem to either mind or notice. “Komaeda!” Hajime hissed, noticing the other's serious expression after the fact. ‘Does he really want to know that bad...?!’

What the boy actually wanted to say took him aback.

“Not that I think you need me telling you, but I would advise against letting uncertainty take over during the debate, Hinata-kun. If you let that fire die out, what do you suppose will keep me on your side?”

With those murmured words, the grasp quickly loosened and soon enough stopped existing as the white-haired youngster left for his own spot in the podium circle.

‘What does he mea--?’

He blinked slowly, realizing what the answer to that unfinished question was.

‘Wait... It's simple. Komaeda helped the previous murderer because he saw hope in him. Once the tables were turned and Hanamura lost that spark of hope, Komaeda turned his back on him. That's all there was to it.’

Hajime realized that he had been just standing there for about ten seconds, so he quickly resumed walking. That warning felt like a slap to the face, but it was... refreshing in a way. Although he wouldn't ever admit it, he actually appreciated it.

‘Why is it I feel like I understand him more, yet less at the same time?’ he thought, scrutinizing the boy with his eyes.

In return, when he finally arrived where he was supposed to, he was found out by Nagito while still staring with absorption and puzzlement.

The brunet sharply shut his eyes, shook his head and snapped towards Monokuma's throne before making his eyelids open again, avoiding Nagito's amused look. He needed to concentrate right now.

“So? How is this going to work? We cannot apply the standard trial rules that we used last time,” Hajime pointed out.

“This is so stupid... Nobody died, right? So, why are we wasting time playing pretend that this is a trial?” Fuyuhiko let himself be heard, sounding relatively annoyed.

“Upupupu, how naive. Typical hope devotees.” The brunet could _feel_ Nagito's disapproving frown that formed on his facial curves.

“What do you mean...?” Fuyuhiko asked carefully.

Monokuma continued: “Everything can be molded into a trial if I want it to. Did you think I would summon you all down here to let you have a peaceful chat over a cup of tea? This is called a courtroom for a reason. There needs to be a judge and a defendant.”

“With that being said, during this trial you will present and discuss your ideas of how to prevent any more murders taking place. At the end, you will come to a conclusion. If you come up with a solution that is in accordance to the rules, the trial will end and I'll provide whatever items needed to bring your plan into play.”

“ _However_ , if you are unable to think of anything actually applicable and working, I will be forced to punish somebody for... ‘wasting our time’ as Kuzuryuu-kun nicely put it.”

“W-who's forcing you?!” Kazuichi blurted out.

“Hinata-kun, you're the primal reason this trial is taking place now...”

Hajime prepared for the mental impact, bracing himself. ‘Here it comes...’

“Wait a second! How do you deem a plan functional? You are hardly unbiased!” Mahiru called out.

“Oh, I won't be the judge. Just like the last time, you will decide yourselves by voting, which brings me to my another point. If Hinata-kun being executed were the only punishment, there's no way you would ever vote against however bad a plan you make,” Monokuma finished and turned his round head to Hajime. “Thus, you can get that frown off your face, Hinata-kun, you're in the clear. You can thank yourself for being so popular among the class.”

**blink**

‘...What...?’

“Now, I wonder who the one most adept for being taken rid of without anyone complaining is... The one nobody likes to have around...”

Wickedly, the robot rotated his head on purpose very slowly to have his synthetic eyes land on a specific person when he finished his lengthy monolog. Needless to say, the army of eyes of everyone else was already on the obvious pick.

Eyes being shut...

An amused huff.

A seemingly plastic smile.

...Gray orbs coming undone.

“Ah, I get it.” Nagito finally said with a little too big of a dose of acceptance that a normal person would deem justifiable.

“Seriously? I don't understand shit!” Nekomaru proclaimed.

“It saddens me to hear that someone such as yourself has trouble grasping such a simple concept... Hmm, why don't you explain, Hinata-kun? You surely understand the current state of affairs. Truth be told, I wonder how you're going to twist your words, attempting to avoid ‘wounding my feelings’ while keeping your face.”

‘Is there even a way to hurt his feelings...?’ One of Hajime's eyebrows twitched painfully. He inhaled deeply before speaking, looking at Nekomaru: “Komaeda--”

He granted the white-haired boy a rapid stern look before continuing.

“--is the greatest threat to peace as of now. He is the original perpetrator and the cause of the first incident.” Hajime found it difficult to talk this way about someone when they were in the same room. “This trial is basically about us finding a better solution for keeping peace and quiet other than simply executing him...”

“...”

“...Oh.”

He wasn't worried about Nagito at the moment. If anything, Hajime was more concerned about the possibility of the others losing interest and motivation to participate in this debate. After all, it was mostly for the lunatic's benefit if they were to turn out to be successful in it. Thankfully, their classmates weren't the monsters that they would claim Nagito to be.

“...Sooo, where do we begin...?” the pink-haired boy asked.

“Hmph, I suggest we go over the rules for starters. Monokuma said we need to take them into consideration, after all,” Gundham offered.

“Oh! Good call!”

With that, there were no objections and the classmates all took out their e-Handbooks. All of them then got to scrolling through the corresponding section, reading in silence. At first there wasn't anything useful or eye-catching, but then...

  


RULE #12:  
THE BLACKENED MAY ONLY KILL A MAXIMUM OF TWO PEOPLE DURING ANY SINGLE ‘KILLING GAME’.

  


“...Hey, since when is this rule in here, Monokuma? The twelfth one.” Mahiru inquired after sharing a look with the others.

“Hmm? Oh, must have forgotten to tell you about it,” Monokuma answered dismissively.

People were about to start arguing again, but Sonia interjected: “Let us not let that fact hold us up, please. We must not lose our concentration right now!”

‘...Well, that wasn't helpful at all.’

Silence dethroned the noise of discussion.

“Ran out of ideas already?” Monokuma asked mockingly.

‘Dammit...!’ Hajime cursed inside, his taupe orbs jumping from one person to another, asking for anyone to say something.

“Well then--”

“Why don't we talk about the requirements for a murder being successful? If we manage to eliminate at least one of them by making it impossible to fulfill, it would lead to no cases possibly taking place,” Nagito suggested, cutting Monokuma off.

This was, like, the first time ever Nagito helped to raise the mood. Hajime finally breathed out after a decade of seconds.

“What are the requirements again?” Mahiru asked.

Peko was the one to answer the question: “Lack of witnesses and evidence. Preferably an alibi as well.”

“Um, that doesn't help...”

Sonia then proposed: “Why don't we use the previous case as support? Let's summarize it and think of ways it could have been prevented. Perhaps we'll find something that could be applicable across the board?”

“Yeah, we can try that,” Hajime agreed.

That was the moment Fuyuhiko decided to talk after a long time of having been silent. He sounded pessimistic: “Heh. Yeah, you can _try_ , but we all know that unless you plan to lock everyone together in one room with no privacy whatsoever, then there is no way you can prevent anyone from killing whenever they feel like it. Don't think I'll vote for something that means spending more time with you, by the way.”

“What is your problem?”

“Don't mind him. We need to concentrate,” Mahiru said.

Mikan then joined the discussion for the first time that night: “S-still, isn't h-he k-kinda right?”

“Shut up! Nobody asked for your opinion!” Hiyoko berated the timid girl uncompromisingly.

“Upupupu, we are getting desperate, aren't we? Why don't you just give it up already?”

“You shut up, too!”

“All of you, please, calm down!”

“I'm calm as a millpond!”

“You very clearly aren't!”

.  
.  
.

Nagito listened to the clamor with great interest, observing each individual closely.

He was... baffled at how unnecessarily long that discussion was. Monokuma was basically providing them with a free service to get them rid of the most unpleasant person, yet they persisted fighting. He knew that Hajime wouldn't give up so easily, but... to see that the vast majority persevered with him... It wouldn't be him if he didn't deem it to be hope spreading among the class.

Whatever we call it, it doesn't change the fact that this behavior caused a rush of warmth. The... warm, fuzzy feeling grew situated in the chest area, notably at the lower part of his heart, which got to beating at a greater pace.

He had never had these tiny, hormonally-induced butterflies rush through his veins right into the chambers of his heart. Truth be told, he had never had a heart attack ever before either and that's what he mistook this sensation for. After realizing and growing used to the most beautiful feeling he'd ever get to feel, the starry-eyed man interpreted this as hope being spread to him as well.

‘Getting this over with would be just fine... but for now this feels too good to be true. I don't want to crush the hope that they've just created, so perhaps I should help them out...’

The boy looked up from the lightly clenched fist on his chest with a tad bit of disappointment when the warmness started to disperse. He didn't want it to leave and that made him feel selfish, which conflicted with the notion that he didn't deserve such a thing. Nagito shook his head from side to the other slowly.

He was about to interject in the dispute, but he didn't get to do what he wanted.

Just as his hand was leaving into its default position, it automatically landed on a different part of his body, clutching at it in agony. It was as if the gentle butterflies fluttering in his arteries suddenly turned into hornets and aimed for his underbelly. He had a hard time keeping the noise of his down.

‘Ah, how cruel...’ he thought, having an idea what this was, although this theory of his was wrong.

A fair amount of tears caused by pain glistened in his cold eyes as he collapsed down on his knees. Somehow he managed to drag and turn his body to have his back rest against the wooden furniture next to him. His hand then slipped underneath that top of his to check. He blinked at the strange sensation...

.  
.  
.

It was a loud thump that made everyone stop arguing in an instant and direct their gazes towards it, it being Nagito's body self-comfortingly swaying back and forth.

“Komaeda-san?!”

“Are you all right?”

“Do something, Tsumiki! You're a nurse, aren't you?”

Just as Mikan was about to run for the suffering youngster, the robotic plushie resolved to cutting in: “Silence in the courtroom! I trust you haven't forgotten the reason we're here. Nobody's leaving their place unless a final vote has been made. Just to remind you, you're under the threat of punishment if you don't obey the rules.”

“You cannot be serious! He's in major pain!”

“Upupupu. Then vote already. ...Oh, wait, you haven't come up with anything as of yet! Too bad, I guess,” Monokuma mocked, putting his stuffed paws over his crooked mouth.

There wasn't a single person aside from Monokuma and Nagito who didn't have a condemning frown on their face. Although the group didn't particularly like the hurting man, they liked Monokuma even less. Hajime noticed this and thought how bizarre it was that someone like the white-haired boy could serve as means to making everyone come together.

‘Still, we don't have a single plan yet...’ He granted Nagito one more look. ‘....And he's not going to help us anytime soon...’

Fuyuhiko then suddenly proposed something that shocked them: “So what if we actually did lock ourselves up in one single room? Would that eliminate all possibilities for a blackened to act?”

“What? Kuzuryuu, didn't you say that--” Hajime started.

“Leave it. The sooner we make a solution to this, the better Komaeda's chances are,” he said, sighing thereafter. “...I'm not _that_ much of a monster, you know.”

“Young master...” Peko muttered inaudibly.

Whatever everyone expected, it wasn't this. Ever since the very beginning the young yakuza had been nothing but distant and uninvolved in the group's matters, so this statement of his and him coming out of his comfort zone felt notably refreshing.

“Well, are you going to answer me or not?” the blond teen urged.

“Yeah, I mean, it sounds good, but would it be sustainable? I don't think we'd be able to live that way for too long...” Kazuichi said skeptically.

Sonia agreed: “...I am afraid Souda-san might be right about this. Too many people in one place might lead to us losing our tempers and snapping.”

“We cannot have people alone, yet we cannot put everyone in a herd...” Gundham muttered.

A spark appearing in his eyes, Hajime looked up from his palm that he had been staring at for a while. “....What did you just say, Tanaka?”

“...That we cannot stay all together?”

Kazuichi started talking before Hajime could: “Haah. I liked it when we could just tie the guy down. It was such an easy solution...”

“And what do you suggest we do? Tie everyone up?” someone asked. Hajime didn't really pay attention to who it was.

‘What if...’ he thought hopefully, deep in thought. The more perceptive individuals observed his facial movements closely. “You know... that could actually work--”

“Seriously...?!”

“--Only other than tying ourselves to someplace, we tie each other to _someone_.”

The class shared looks with each other in reaction and he was about to elaborate when Fuyuhiko said: “So, in other words, it will be like when children in kindergarten form pairs and keep holding hands when going on walks?”

Hajime nodded slowly and everyone exchanged wordless sentences using their eyes, communicating.

An unexpected person joined the chat: “I see. If each of us is forced to, well, glued to another person, it completely eliminates the possibility of there being no witnesses. A pair would have to cooperate to do the killing...” Nagito, the current speaker, was still sitting on the floor, but he wasn't curled up in a ball anymore, his legs stretched out and relaxed. His head was bent backwards and he was looking their way over his own nose.

“...Excuse my choice of words, but are you not supposed to still be writhing in pain...? It's been barely two minutes since you collapsed to the floor,” Sonia pointed out.

“No, it went completely away...” he responded slowly, propping himself on his palms and getting up. “Don't ask me why or how. I don't have a clue myself.”

“...”

After a few seconds of silence, Nagito then added with an entertained smile: “Are you that happy for me that you forgot to resume the debate?”

Hajime shook his head while rolling his eyes. ‘I would question him more, but now's not the time... Why would something like that even happen? Was he faking it? It doesn't make sense for someone to start feeling pain for no reason. It's like--’ His eyes widened. ‘--Like when I got that invisible scab...’

Fuyuhiko and Nagito gave Hajime questioning stares, the latter tilting his head sideways in the process.

“I still don't get it, though...” Akane admitted, drawing attention from the suspicious recovery.

Peko was the one to explain: “I suppose it would be better to give you an example. Imagine us splitting into pairs.”

“Pairs of two?”

“Nah, pairs of three,” Hiyoko scoffed at Akane.

“Ah! Thanks!”

“Please, stop confusing her, Saionji-san!” Sonia requested.

Hajime decided to take over the explanatory duty: “Owari, imagine that Souda is handcuffed to Tanaka and so is Pekoyama to Kuzuryuu. Okay? Let's say that Tanaka wanted to murder Pekoyama for some reason.” Hajime earned glares from both examples. Good for him he didn't notice. “His main problem would be that he'd have to persuade Souda to cooperate because he'd be a direct witness otherwise.”

“They would also need to murder both Kuzuryuu and Pekoyama, which would only complicate things further...” Mahiru added.

Nobody had anything to add to that.

“Before we continue, I'd like a clarification on something...” Nagito then started, lifting his gray gaze up to the headmaster's position. “Monokuma, what happens when the blackened has an accomplice? Is the group as a whole considered to be the culprit?”

The response was delayed by a noticeable amount of time: “.........No, only the one to deliver the final hit counts as the blackened.”

Nagito's pewter gloss in his eyes shifted from skepticism to surprise to suspicion and lastly, to intrigue. “Well, I assume we're done here, aren't we?”

++++++++

The 77th class was aware of the consequences of there being ultimately only one culprit to each murder. They, however, had more important business to attend to and didn't think of the few final lines said between Nagito and Monokuma before it was time to vote.

Hajime and the majority of the group found themselves surrounding a cardboard box that contained a fair amount of handcuffs.

After voting in Nagito's favor, that's what Monokuma gave them _unwillingly_ before departing without any explanation. Truth be told, none was surprised at this point.

Needless to say, their current expressions were... mostly unsettled.

“U-um, I-I have a... re-report,” Mikan said after having trotted to the rest. She had just finished examining Nagito's abdomen.

Everyone felt a bit of relief, having their gazes drawn away from the box's contents.

“Well?” Gundham cued, sounding patient enough.

“S-so, he seems to b-be fine, but...”

“But?”

“Uh, h-he has s-stitches... I counted t-thirty-two of them. They a-are... um, uh...” She paused. “T-they're invisible... like Hi-Hinata-kun's apparent scab...”

Hajime didn't pay attention to what people started commenting, but it was clear it was nothing he himself wasn't thinking. ‘What...? Just what the heck is going on here? People going missing and wounds that cannot be seen, but can be felt...? Not to mention, the wounds appeared so randomly. Also, _thirty-two_...? That's like... after a major surgery or something...’ 

Nagito, his hand slipping from under his tee after caressing the cut for confirmation, approached the group slowly. “Well, all I can say is that at the very least this is nothing new... at least after what had happened to Hinata-kun.” He shoved the now loose hand in his pocket, cracking a smile.

The group stayed silent in a wordless agreement. Everyone then turned to the cardboard box again reluctantly.

“Sooo...” Kazuichi started, “how are we gonna...?”

“I'll be with big sis!” Hiyoko exclaimed. It seemed she had been waiting for an opportunity to say so for a while.

“Hmph, I'll go with Peko, obviously...” Fuyuhiko murmured, but then he corrected himself: “I-if she doesn't mind!” 

“Anything you wish for, young master.”

The blond yakuza breathed out in frustration. “Seriously... That wasn't an order, you know. I don't want to decide for you.”

Peko didn't say anything to that, though she seemed relatively flattered. Perhaps she was taken aback too much.

“Uh, is it really okay for a guy and a girl to make a pair...? You _do_ realize you are going to share a bed at night, right?” Mahiru said disapprovingly.

Most classmates fidgeted nervously at the notion of ‘sharing beds’, Fuyuhiko not being able to hold back a blush and Gundham resolving to hiding his cheeks underneath his purple scarf.

Hajime cleared his throat, making his abashed expression go away. He said: “I-I mean... If both of them are fine with it, I don't see why we should stop them...”

“F-fair enough... I guess,” Mahiru remarked, though still sounding unfavorably.

After a moment of shuffling around, Akane and Nekomaru decided to form a pair with great enthusiasm, which left only Hajime, Sonia, Kazuichi, Gundham, Mikan and Nagito remaining. Hajime chose not to make a choice yet, having no real preferences in this matter. ‘I have a bad feeling I know who I'm going to end up with, though...’ he thought.

Just as Hajime and everyone else predicted, Kazuichi jumped onto the opportunity of asking Sonia. Obviously, the Ultimate Princess had a better idea. It seemed that she wanted to ask Gundham, but then she realized that poor Mikan might as well wind up to be paired with Kazuichi. Long story short, Sonia took Mikan under her wing.

Now there were only disgruntled Kazuichi, impassive Gundham, concerned Hajime and seemingly amused Nagito left. The latter two were understanding of the conversation that was about to occur.

++++++++

‘How did this happen again...?’ Hajime inquired himself, feeling one end of the handcuffs around his left wrist with his fingers.

His brownish green gaze followed the chain that formed into a second circle of metal that was hugging the right wrist of another person. The said man was putting his green trench coat over the backrest of an armchair. He had taken the piece of clothing for some reason or other off before accepting his own cuff. ‘Oh right... Everyone decided I was the only one at least a bit capable of watching over the guy...’

There was a voice calling from behind the closed door: “Hey, buddy? How about you take them _both_? I swear he's going to turn me into a frog overnight!”

Hajime rolled his eyes, calling back: “Goddammit, Souda! He's the Ultimate Breeder, not the Ultimate Curse Caster! If anything, he's going to send his Dark Devas of Destruction to gnaw on your toes!” He then thought: ‘Let alone that we can't even unlock ourselves, having left the keys in the court room...’

Gundham's deep voice could be heard: “Hmph, what a tempting idea.”

“You're not helping!”

The brunet groaned. “Go to sleep, you two!”

There were hesitant steps indicating their departure.

Turning attention back into the room, he found Nagito chuckling while sitting on the above mentioned armchair, which explained the movement Hajime had felt on his end of the short chain. The lad with snow on his roof stopped laughing when hit with his own pillow collected from Nagito's cabin and thrown by Hajime.

The pale lad caught the pillow before it could fall on the floor. “Hmm, how come I've got a feeling you feel frustrated, Hinata-kun?” He asked with an innocent smile. “I'm sorry for that. You can take it out on me if you want.”

Another roll of eyes. “Don't make me slap you again, Komaeda.” When he noticed the newly forming mischievous expression and the sharp inhale of the sitting boy, he added: “And don't you dare say that you wouldn't mind!”

Although Nagito faked a disappointed face, he couldn't hide the fond shimmer in his pewter-like gray orbs.

“Let's just go to sleep,” Hajime said while closing a window behind the other boy's back. He didn't know why it was open, but he didn't question it.

“Oh, you don't shower before bed, Hinata-kun?” As if the wind was determined to accentuate Nagito's point, it blew and made Hajime remember how sweaty he was after the trial. 

“Fine, whatever. You can go first if you want,” he said without thinking.

There was a pull on the chain.

Turning around, he saw his tan left wrist being pulled up along with Nagito's pale one, the now standing taller boy showing him how damn short the chain was.

“Oh...”

Hajime suddenly understood that sharing bed was the least of his current problems. ‘So... a shared shower it is...’

Both teens grew well aware of the awkwardness of the moment. To add insult to injury, when the brunet reluctantly started unbuttoning his shirt, Nagito couldn't get to undressing himself because they would block each other's movements due to the handcuffs. The only thing the white-haired boy could do was either stare or let his eyes wander around the room. Having too much respect, he chose the latter one before noticing something.

“Um, Hinata-kun, you do realize you won't be able to take it off, anyway?” Nagito pointed out when the shirt was halfway undone.

That statement was true as the cuff, once again, was in the way. Neither one of them could take off their tops, being unable to slip out of the sleeves around their restrained arms.

“.....R-right,” Hajime murmured in response. “...Is that why you took your jacket off beforehand...?” he asked for clarification, buttoning his shirt up again.

“Mm-hm.”

“I see...”

The situation felt even more more uneasy when Hajime moved onto his belt and his lower body in general. He could sense Nagito shift uncomfortably when he pulled down the zipper of his jeans. Jeans slid down and the brunet shakily pulled down his boxers.

However, too late did he realize he forgot about his sneakers and socks, which he had to lean down to to take off. It seemed Nagito was too tense to look and he let Hajime pull him down with him without asking questions.

The entire time that it was for Nagito to undress himself, the taupe green-eyed lad kept his eyes fixated on the camera up above, even when he was pulled down when Nagito was taking off his shoes. He stared in disapproval at whoever was hiding behind the lens, refusing to catch a glimpse of the boy behind, worried of what would happen.

He managed to keep his eyes to himself for a long time, even getting to the shower without looking. He had to admit that if there was anything he appreciated about Nagito being the one he'd have to spend time with, then it was the fact that there was no arguing about where to go. The boy followed Hajime like a dog on a leash.

However, he was painfully aware of how short his shirt was...

If the previous moment could be described as awkward, then there isn't any suitable word in the dictionary left for what was taking place then.

Just like with taking clothes off, they had to switch washing themselves, leaving one of them each time to just stand there. While they could have helped each other with their hair, the duo was too embarrassed (especially after accidentally seeing each other's nether regions) to consider that, but what they were worried about the most was the fact that they would have to do this _each fucking day_ (Hajime's exact words).

“Hey, Hinata-kun...”

“What?”

“It doesn't need to be... You do know that I don't have bad intentions, right?” he asked watching the drain under his feet.

Hajime muttered bitterly: “Tell that to Togami and Hanamura...” Though he hated to admit it, he saw some logic to these words. Nagito's involvement in the previous case was because of hope. Hurting Hajime wouldn't bring any hope, so he had no reason to.

The boy didn't retort to that remark, only kept his eyes downcast, sadly watching the stream of water.

++++++++

‘He didn't ask me about Sonia like he seemed to want to in the elevator...’ Hajime thought.

Right now, they were already lying in bed, their tops finally having dried out. Nagito was on the side by the wall, his face turned to the other lad with Hajime showing his back to him.

‘At least the atmosphere is a bit more light-heartened now. I'm not sure I'll be able to get used to these showers anytime soon, though...’ He started to pull his restrained hand closer to his chest, put there was a hindrance, it being the too short chain. He groaned in frustration silently and rolled over for the fiftieth time that night, facing the white mop of hair. This way, their hands were closer, which made it much more comfortable.

**blink**

‘He's fast asleep. Now I see why I feel almost relaxed...’ he thought. ‘...He seems almost harmless this way.’

Registering the fact that he wasn't moving at all, Hajime crossed the neutral zone of the bed and placed his index and middle finger under Nagito's jawbone. No pulse whatsoever. He did something similar when placing his ear to the pale boy's nose. No breath either.

If he hadn't known about this occurrence already, he would have freaked, but now he was just mildly disturbed and thankful for the fact that neither of them started to rot away in their sleep.

After that it took him another twenty rolls and shifts of his body to finally stop seeing and loose consciousness completely, temporarily falling into some sort of a coma.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Be honest. If you shit it, you surely want them handcuffed to each other...
> 
> In all seriousness now, I am baffled that they didn't even try to avoid murders in the original game... except for Twogami... but then he died, so what good does that do...? Also, how come they didn't seem to care about being watched by a camera each time they were in the bathroom...?
> 
> Anyway, the next chapter will include Hajime's questions and a review of the past events via Hajime's diary. I figured something like that would be needed.
> 
> Actually, I think that diary should appear more. It's great for summaries, you'll see.


	10. Dear Diary, I'm Starting to Get It (Part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After (once again) awakening into the outside world, Nagito, his plan having failed, has to reconsider and decide on what to tell Hajime to satisfy him without telling him too much. Hajime, on the other hand, needs to prepare his questions... and to stop relying on the Internet for answering his other questions. Everything, that he is later told by Nagito, doesn't leave him cold that evening.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there.
> 
> So, when I started writing this chapter, I realized that this was going to be the tenth chapter already and that I still had yet to add some sort of sexual content. Having said that, I think this chapter might please you (it worked on me) if you're into that (I know most of you are). It's only the third day in the story, so I can't overdo it, but it's at least something.

#### \-- The Outside World; Day No. 3 --

“Hey, are you positive he's not going to just randomly wake up?” a young male voice sounded across the hospital room.

Sighing, Nagito placed the pen he had just been writing with onto the guest table. He then lifted his gaze to look into a pair of red eyes. However, before his eyes reached their final destination, they managed to catch a glimpse of Hajime lying in the corner on one of the two beds.

“No, he'll be like this for a while. The...... _provider_ guarantees the drug to last for forty hours at the bare minimum. That is, taking into consideration the amount he was given and the fact that he is of average body weight.”

The gray-orbed lad had to appreciate the change when he compared this room to the surgery wing. Even though he didn't remember much, he recalled it being freezing cold and hostile. It was debatable whether he got that feeling because of the whiteness of the walls there or the fact of the hospital morgue being just behind the corner of the surgical theater. Perhaps it was simply because nobody was there with him when he was there.

This room, however, was a standard patient room, nothing scary about it. Its walls were painted the color lime green, which had a surprisingly soothing effect on Nagito's psyche, and window curtains were semi-transparent and bright red, letting inside a fair amount of sunlight if the shutters happened to be open. Obviously, doctors had to be able to see if one was bleeding and things of that nature, so the bed sheets were only the lightest hue of blue.

Apart from all of that, the room was fairly spacious, big enough for Nagito to move around in a wheelchair. He wasn't allowed to walk due to the risk of his wounds re-opening. Granted, he wasn't supposed to move in that wheelchair without anyone's help either, yet he did.

“...I wouldn't trust that bunch.”

Nagito smiled to himself lightly, huffing softly afterwards.

“I never said I did. I only believe the information they've given me about their product. When it comes to trust, I have very little of that in them, even less than in you,” the ex-Ultimate Lucky Student muttered, picking up his pen again and resuming working on his school work.

That comment was expected and therefore left ignored.

Truth be told, Nagito had to give it his best effort to keep on his standard neutral face and the tiniest hint of a smile. To put it simply, he in no way liked this person he was just sharing the oxygen around with. The reason was simple. This person was the cause of Hajime ending up involved.

“Is that the Latin alphabet? ...Wow, they even gave you the ability to read and write like people nowadays do?”

The young man with snowy roof didn't deem it necessary to answer, so he didn't.

His skill in using that alphabet wasn't perfect, though... messy, kinda like his memories. Sometimes he would accidentally start using Kanji instead. He had this problem with names as well. In his mind he kept interchanging the usage of first and last names and sometimes needed to take a second to rethink which one to use.

The red-eyed youngster continued: “The modern alphabet, different customs, new birth certificates, IDs, bank accounts, memories... Just what _didn't_ they do to hide the truth?”

This time Nagito answered, but only in his thoughts: ‘Clearly not enough, considering how much I know...’ He looked in Hajime's general direction. ‘And how much _he_ already knows despite my efforts to prevent this...’ His eyes stayed fixated there long enough to reassure himself that Hajime was, as intended, still sleeping and nothing more, nothing less.

After that, he turned his head back, asking: “Now, will you finally tell me the actual reason you've come here?”

The red orbs blinked. “I was told to go check on you, so I came.”

The boy with a cut mark on his belly didn't think he was lying. He had expected this retort. To be honest, his previous query wasn't really a question rather than an opening to ask something else.

“Is that so? You didn't come to ask about what happened inside? It would seem you already know, which isn't really much surprising, but I've been wondering...” To indicate that he wanted a truthful answer, he deepened his voice in a more serious manner. “What will it take for you to stop getting Hajime involved?”

**hnnNNNNnnnuuunghh~**

Both heads shot in the same direction.

To Nagito's great relief, it was only Hajime rolling in his sleep, not waking up. It would seem that he happened to move from his side onto his back, letting a sound out from the back of his throat in the process. He also somehow managed to spread his arms out in a way that they protruded and went beyond the edges of his bed.

Both young men realized that this was an indicator of Hajime's sleep getting lighter, meaning he would gain consciousness quite soon.

“...My, you can get real scary when you're serious, you know?” the unpleasant stranger stated, making the other lad turn his attention back to him. “Congratulations. You're the first old geezer I've yet met to make me feel intimidated.”

“Oh, are you trying to make me mad? I assure you that won't be easy. To address that other point, my age is just a number in my case, even if it may sound cliche. Officially, I'm no more than two years older than you.”

“I wasn't trying to make you angry. If I wanted to do that, I would simply get up and go do something directly to Hajime.”

Nagito's usual unreadable countenance changed into something cold.

Brows furrowed.

Eyelids and eyelashes grew closer.

Lips turned into a thin line.

“...Is that frown one of the things your crush has taught you?”

Nagito ignored that remark, keeping his cool and trying to soften his look a bit. “Are you going to address my question anytime soon?”

The second boy shrugged. “About Hajime's involvement? Sorry, it's not up to me to decide.”

There was another small shift on Hajime's bed that got Nagito's attention.

“Well, if you have nothing to tell me, then it would seem you have outstayed your welcome... by the entirety of the time you were here, might I add. You better leave before he awakes.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever, old man,” the sixteen-year-old uttered, getting up from his chair. As he swung his back pack over his shoulder, he turned around once again, this time with a more serious expression. “Before I leave... Why don't you just tell him everything? I'm sure you realize that things would get much easier if he were to actively cooperate.”

“...I will resolve to that if I have no other choice. For now I'll tell him only as much as I need him to stop questioning everything.”

“...Huh... Can I ask you one more thing?”

“What is it?”

“Why don't you tell him, like, about your feelings?”

At that, the white-haired boy stumbled: “...W-what?! Don't be ridiculous. Just go, please.”

There was no answer, just a shrug. Soon enough, Nagito's uninvited company left, the entire room went silent and Nagito was left to his own thoughts.

He placed his palms on his cheeks, trying to rub the pink color off. It didn't necessarily work, the color went away by itself over some time. ‘Hajime's going to have so many questions already. This time, however, there will be no way for me to dance around the subject... I can't give him a reason to question my feelings on top of all that.’

His school work long forgotten, he then put his elbows on the table, intertwined the fingers of both of his hands and rested his forehead on his connected hands. ‘Seriously, the doctor just _had_ to mess up and re-open my abdomen... He's going to find out the wound is real... well, more like remember it.’

**haaaaa-- ahhh**

After that long sigh, the tarnished pewter of his eyes wandered off to find the almost limp body in the corner. As if being pulled, he slowly directed the wheelchair to stop next to Hajime's bed.

Dragging himself up and using the edge of the bed for support, he watched as the boy's chest kept rising and dropping periodically with each breath.

‘What a joke, telling him. That wouldn't help anybody. What if he rejected me? Silly me, of course he would. He would stick around me only because I have information. Later, when he got what he wanted, he would lea--... No... Hajime is too kind. He would pretend to be friends with me despite his feelings, slowly and steadily growing apart from me.’

Another sigh.

‘I couldn't even protect him from getting involved. To top it all off, I didn't manage to lessen the damage by cutting him off before he fell asleep again. I don't deserve anything nice from him.’

For a second his eyes lost the tarnish in them. It was as if the pewter turned to silver, which melted. He blinked the wetness away, shaking his head. ‘I need to stop. All I need to do is keep my feelings a secret and perhaps he'll let me be his actual friend for some time. I should be satisfied with that much.’

He leaned above the brunet head.

“Hin--... Hajime, I am so sorry... for being this selfish and inept. If I weren't this incompetent, nobody would feel the need to drag you into this... What a weak excuse, I know,” he whispered.

After what felt like an eternity, he lowered his lips, rubbing them against the smooth forehead. ‘Is this how you're supposed to do it?’ he asked himself.

He tried to do it as softly as a butterfly, which wasn't such a problem. It, however, took him a while to figure out that other than caressing the skin, he was supposed to connect his lips, move them outward and disconnect them to make the typical wet popping sound.

The sound his lips made against the skin didn't come off as satisfying, which was caused by the lips being simply too dry to produce such a wet sound. Unawares, he brought his lips together and rolled them inside, licking them with the tip of his tongue.

While he was curious enough to give it another try, he wasn't enthralled and out of his senses enough to move anywhere lower than to the nose. He knew better than kissing Hajime on his lips and stealing his first kiss... It was a mere assumption there was something to steal, however. Obviously, he couldn't know.

So, curiously enough, Nagito left a tiny peck on the tip of the brunet's nose, leaving the skin a tiny bit moist with saliva.

There was this urge in him to either continue doing this or even bite down in the skin, but he resisted it. He was aware that he had crossed the line already. Instead, he only took one of Hajime's hands in his own.

‘I will make up for this. Once my wound heals and they let me out, I'll do what I planned to do that night. We may not have our talents anymore, but that doesn't guarantee us getting to live a normal life. I can't let him lose that. Once he becomes useless to everyone, there will be no risk of that loss anymore... No risk of him remembering what he did when he was a Remnant of Despair.’

There were steps audible in the hallway and he knew what was coming.

Unwillingly, like a child giving away his favorite toy, he let go of the boy's hand and sat back down onto the wheelchair. “I presume I'll see you in the evening, Hajime.”

++++++++

Of course, Hajime wasn't dumb. When he finally woke up and was told about having been drugged to sleep, he realized that Nagito was the only one who could have done it. He recalled very well the moment when he remembered not having taken his sickly yellow-black pill. It was the mentioned boy who brought him one from Ibuki's own batch, having taken some time getting it.

So, atop of all questions he already had, there was this new distrust in the innocence of Nagito's intentions.

He, however, wasn't able to appease his curiosity and suspicion, Nagito having been taken away for various check-ups if he understood correctly.

He decided to leave the hospital prematurely. Despite it being blatantly against regulations, nurses still let him go because of the increasing problem of low capacity of the hospital patient wing. The reason for this decision was mostly his need for some sort of distraction as he was damn sure he would go insane if he were to just stay in bed and keep repeating the same questions to himself.

‘Why did this dream pick up where the previous one left off?’

‘Why did Nagito's wound project into it just like mine did the last time?’

‘Why were we being chased that night after leaving Ibuki's?’

And other.

He needed to keep himself from overthinking these, so after writing all of his questions and the latest observations down (as well as taking his medication and contacting his guardian about what happened), he went to attend a lecture at his college (as he was supposed to). His guardian told him that him and Nagito having been chased would need to be investigated and Hajime was assured things would be taken care of.

Right now he was simply lying on his bed, his college schedule being over for the day. He was just staring at the ceiling. Although his expression made him look like some kind of a philosopher, there was really nothing notable being achieved by his thought processes. He was mostly trying to think of new things to distract himself while failing miserably.

**sigh**

Growing tired of his attempts being to no avail, he slightly rolled his hips to the side. That way there was now access to his phone in one of his back pockets. He pulled it out and unlocked it, lifting it above his face to see.

He decided against calling or texting Ibuki who kept spamming him the entirety of the previous lecture, asking him if he was fine and such. Then there was Nagito, but there was also this problem of having been told to come visit him in the evening as to not disturb the boy for some reason. Also, he didn't know what to say to him. Well, more like he had too much to say and that was something he wanted to discuss in person.

So, Hajime decided to ask the Internet, which he would soon regret.

Searching for ‘ways to distract oneself’, he couldn't find anything that would catch his interest and later he somehow ended up in a section of ‘ways to distract oneself from bad thoughts and to make oneself feel happy’.

He kept scrolling down a random list of activities that he eventually had to arrive at a certain word.

It was the word ‘masturbation’.

Naturally, Hajime closed not only the current tab, but also the whole browser, including a random cat video. He placed the device next to himself and proceeded to rub his face in frustration and embarrassment, internally grateful for the website not having had any images. ‘Just... Why? Why does the world hate me?’

He moved up, propping himself on his elbows. ‘How does it even work? That's like saying that working out helps! How can physical activity distract you mentally...?’

The brunet looked round the room as if expecting to find somebody looking. Finally, his greenish gaze landed on his crotch curiously. ‘It just had to remind me...’

“...Fuck it,” he hissed through the teeth.

Refusing to unzip his jeans in a shared bedroom with the threat of his roommate possibly coming in, he simply cupped the place where his cock was with his right hand. The end part of his palm connected to the wrist was placed somewhere at the base of his penis. Similarly, the last segments of his fingers reached way down to curl around and underneath his balls as much as his pants allowed it.

He sighed yet again. ‘This feels dumb...’

Although it didn't seem so at the first sight, he was really damn nervous. His hand shook a bit and his heart felt kind of heavy, beating slightly faster.

He gulped.

Eventually he compelled himself to move. He softly started rubbing himself, periodically enclosing and opening his palm around his member and balls. ‘Huh... Isn't it supposed to make you...?’

It turned out he started doubting the effect prematurely. After just a few more strokes he found himself grabbing at the bed sheets with his other hand, spreading his legs abnormally far apart. He also started having a hard time keeping himself from letting out weird sounds as he would describe them. Other than all of that, his spine arched back slightly.

On instinct, he rotated his palm to have the thumb rest on his member. While remaining cupping his balls, he got to working directly on the shaft that he could feel getting wet via the tip. The nerves in his skin told him about the wetness in his underwear that was partially caused by his apocrine sweat glands, the ones that gave Hajime his unique smell. Not that he knew about those.

**buzz-buzz**

The sound of his phone made him come back to reality.

Pink in the face as his dick currently was, he rolled and flopped onto his stomach, grabbing the device. ‘What the hell was wrong with me?’ He unlocked it. ‘I couldn't...stop?’

He had to admit, it _did_ distract him... a bit too much. To tell the truth, it actually... _frightened_ him how wonderful it felt even without taking anything off.

He shook his head. ‘I'm just going to pretend that shit never happened...’ To keep his focus from the bulging problem in his boxers, he read the message he just received.

| Unknown Number; 12/01/2XYZ, Now |  
\- hey, its me again. why didn't you listen to my advise not to leave ibuki's house that day? -

Hajime frowned, his member going limp slowly.

| You; 12/01/2XYZ, Now |  
\- who the hell are you even? -

There was no immediate reply, so he decided to go take a _freezing_ shower to take care of the problem he himself created.

When he finally got out the bathroom, two messages were there.

| Unknown Number; 12/01/2XYZ, 3:39 p.m. |  
\- the one who got you to meet with both of your friends. no need to thank me. -

| Unknown Number; 12/01/2XYZ, 3:41 p.m. |  
\- also, why don't you go see nagito? it's past his check-ups already. he must be bored. -

Hajime glared at the phone screen in his hand. He started typing, but stopped mid-sentence.

He whispered in a murmur: “Is this a good idea? Nagito showed his disapproval over me trusting this person clearly... Then again, can I trust Nagito? I went over this so many times today. After he gave me that pill, he wasn't even surprised when I suddenly started falling to sleep for no reason when we were being chased. There's no way he wasn't involved.”

He shook his head. ‘Whatever. It doesn't matter now. I'll ask this guy. All I need is to be wary and not to trust everything he tells me.’

| You; 12/01/2XYZ, Now |  
\- why did you want me to stay in the house, anyway? -

While waiting for an answer, he decided that it actually _was_ a good idea to see Nagito now. He had only so much time before his shift at a nearby bar. He walked over to his desk and leaned over a bit. After smiling softly at the fan art wallpaper of the 77th class opening Christmas presents, he closed his laptop.

He checked his phone that he left on the chest bed. No response yet.

So, he went ahead and put on some clothes (he was only in his boxers after having taken the shower). As it was December already, it was rather cold and he didn't reserve his favorite dark green jacket which had beige faux fur on the inside.

Grabbing his phone, keys and wallet, he headed over to the door opposite of the balcony that lead to the hallway. Before setting off, he called at his roommate's tomcat: “Be good, Byaku--” Stopping, he looked at the cat. It had blue eyes and a creamy color like Byakuya's suit. He shook his head and confused over himself, he finally left.

A text message arrived when he was already descending the dormitory main staircase.

| Unknown Number; 12/01/2XYZ, Now |  
\- hm, should i tell you? -

Another one then came.

| Unknown Number; 12/01/2XYZ, Now |  
\- nah, i wanna see you pry that information out of nagito. -

And one more.

| Unknown Number; 12/01/2XYZ, Now |  
\- by the way, you might find the back exit useful. -

Looking around, Hajime's confused frown only deepened when he noticed a camera man and a woman with a microphone right outside the building. Needless to say, he did as he was advised.

++++++++

Was Nagito happy? He _did_ say so to Hajime. In the grand scheme of things, it was true.

While Hajime was aware of Nagito's happiness, he didn't know the reason. His luck cycle being now gone was the greatest gift he could have ever gotten. That was the reason. However, Nagito decided he wouldn't tell him. He couldn't as it would lead to digging his own grave. Explaining this to Hajime meant eventually revealing that their memories of The Tragedy were real.

You see, he could just tell him everything, about the deaths and all the harm done to everyone that ever grew close to him. Like his parents and beloved dog. Just tell Hajime he was relieved none of that was true. Tell him it was a part of the scripted memories.

However, it wasn't that easy. There were prevailing effects of those incidents in his life still. His left arm now being prosthetic, his hair being white, the intestine cancer of his... Hajime would see through this. He was already starting to.

Nagito was well aware of the fact that it was only a question of time. It stressed him _so much_. He wanted Hajime to live in ignorance, but...

**knock - knock**

Nagito's head snapped in the direction of the door, eyes widening in anticipation a bit before coming back to normal. “Come on in.”

He cracked a smile when Hajime entered.

“Ah, good evening, Hajime. Have you come to interrogate me already?” he asked, watching his brunet visitor close the door behind himself.

The newcomer had a mixture of puzzlement, suspense and skepticism on his frowny face. That look didn't look good on him. Nagito couldn't help but also notice the boy's dark, rather close-fitting jeans and a gray button-up with a black tie sticking out from underneath his jacket. These actually suited him.

It was already getting dark, but not quickly enough to hide Nagito's skin that was now deadly pale as it used to be before. Not even the dark circles under his gray orbs were concealed by the upcoming lack of sun light.

Hajime narrowed his eyes at the sight on the patient bed. His gaze was a bit softer, yet hardened in a way with concern. “You look terrible, you know... What did they do to you? Colonoscopy?”

‘...Well... that _is_ a way to say hello... How blunt.’ While Nagito looked taken aback at first, his expression soon changed from surprise, over amusement right into a smug grin that even the Cheshire cat would be proud to show. ‘Does he even realize what type of words I could use in my answer?’

In the end he chose to say something a bit more tame: “It's always so refreshing to hear from you that I look as if I had just had a camera in my intestines, Hajime.”

The brunet sighed deeply, while rolling his eyes, internally glad the other one didn't take the joke to the obscene territory. “What I meant to say is that you look real tired.”

Komaeda shook his head while bending his back, stretching. “Like on drugs? I guess unless morphine doesn't count... It's mostly just that I lost a fair bit of blood.”

“...Makes sense, I guess.” Hajime murmured, disturbed by morphine being mentioned. “Before we start... Are you going to tell me the reason why you needed stitches in your belly in the first place?”

“No.”

The taupe green eyes got partially covered when Hajime's scowl deepened again.

Nagito didn't reciprocate the glare. Instead, his face diminished in seriousness, gesturing to the foot of the hospital bed gently. He didn't mean to upset him.

In reaction, Hajime sat down, but on a nearby chair instead of the bed.

**sigh**

“I know that you know who gave you the drug,” Nagito started, his stare buried deep into the bed sheets. Later he lifted his head to say this in Hajime's face: “However, I do advise against referencing it in one of your three questions.”

“Why...?”

“Because I'd have to lie to you,” he answered calmly.

Hajime stopped to think, scrutinizing the hospitalized man from head to toe, mostly paying attention to his facial features. What eventually caught his attention wasn't the face, however. It was the pale arm of his, the left one. It was gloved with an elbow-long glove, which was in contrast to the other exposed arm. He remembered what the boy had told him about his limbs getting cold easily.

“Why do you have only one of your arms in a glove, Nagito? Is there something more to it than just bad blood supply?”

No answer, just a sad smile.

Before Hajime could start talking again, the white-haired boy finally said: “You see, Hajime, I don't need to answer these three questions. Do you know why? ...I'll tell you. It's because I know you're not going to use them as the ones I promised to answer truthfully.”

He paused to meet Hajime's brownish orbs before continuing: “The first reason is simple. They aren't relevant enough. Using them would uncover nothing of importance and wouldn't help you understand this situation as other things would, so it would be a waste. Secondly, now that you've asked them already and I wasn't willing to answer, you are hesitant because you suspect I wouldn't tell you the truth...”

There was a defeated sigh coming from the other boy. “I know that you're not against me because if you were my enemy, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be a free man like I am now. Despite that, it almost feels as if you were _trying_ to make me distrust you.”

“...I'm sorry. I know how you feel, but I simply cannot tell you, Hajime.”

Hajime, having just taken out his diary, looked at Nagito with sudden confusion in his eyes. “What do you mean that you understand how I feel?”

The boy wavered before opening his mouth, perhaps contemplating whether or not to tell him. “...I was told by them only as much as I need to know... just like you. Remember when I told you I was stalemated? Why do you think I told you anything? Why I even responded to your attempts at contacting me? They made me. It may not seem like it to you, but we _are_ basically in the same position.”

“...Who's _they_?”

Nagito shook his head slowly. “Your guess is as good as mine. I'm not even aware of how much _you_ know. That's how little I know.”

**blink**

Needless to say, up until this moment Hajime had been regarding Nagito as someone messing with him. What seemed to be a fact about Nagito's lack of knowledge came of as... scary. Before he felt like he had been dealing with Nagito only, but now he didn't know what he got himself into.

He decided for something rather drastic, taking into account how this idea could be abused. He opened his diary and instead of keeping it close to himself, he offered it with these words: “You're not the only one who can suggest deals. How about this? I'll let you read everything I know, which I suppose will help you in knowing what you can and cannot tell me from now on. In exchange I want you to correct any single point in it that I could have gotten wrong.”

Of all things Nagito expected, this wasn't one of them. This was one of the few moments that he showed Hajime a genuine thunderstruck face. He reluctantly accepted the notebook and after exchanging one more look, he gently turned the first page. He read out loud:

 

_Dear Diary,  
I will write down everything I remember from the Neo World Program here on your pages. I hope you'll be able to help me recollect my memories and let me get on with my life._

_I don't know what else to call it, so I'll call each segment in between trials ‘chapters’._

 

#####  _Most Importantly I need to note:_

  * _Everything was just a simulation. = > Everyone is alive and well._
  * _It was ended. = > Everyone is in the outside world (outside of Neo)._
  * _I can meet everyone after our memory quarantines end (14 days after leaving Neo)._
  * _Chiaki Nanami wasn't ever a human, just part of the program._



 

_++++++++ (end of page) ++++++++_

#####  _Chapter No. 1_

  * _Victims: Byakuya Togami, Teruteru Hanamura_
  * _We met Usami in a classroom and were teleported on an island called the Jabberwock Island._
  * _She (Usami) told us to get to know each other and collect Fragments of Hope. (Hope = > reference to the Tragedy??)_
  * _Monokuma appeared and the Killing School Trip began because of him._
  * _Nagito planned the first murder, but was interrupted by Teruteru who ended up committing the crime himself (with Nagito's help)._
  * _Nagito acted like a lunatic during the trial (is that his real personality??) and broke everyone's trust._



 

// Nagito glimpsed Hajime's way after reading this part. // 


 

  * _After Teruteru being executed for Byakuya's death, we went to sleep._



 

_++++++++ (end of page) ++++++++_

#####  _Chapter No. 2_

  * _Victims: Mahiru Koizumi, Peko Pekoyama, Sonia Nevermind_
  * _Chiaki wasn't in it. She was already deleted._
  * _The new motive Monokuma gave us was a game called Twilight Syndrome Murder Case._
  * _Some of us (including me) played it._
  * _This particular motive was targeted specifically towards Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu who succumbed to it._
  * _Peko Pekoyama murdered Mahiru Koizumi as a revenge by Fuyuhiko and she was found guilty and executed._
  * _Sonia Nevermind got involved and died as well._
  * _After the trial took place, we went to sleep again._



 

_++++++++ (end of page) ++++++++_

#####  _Chapter No. 3_

  * _Victims: Me (Hajime Hinata), Nagito Komaeda_
  * _There was no murder taking place in this one._
  * _In it we didn't remember the second chapter (we questioned Chiaki's disappearance again)._
  * _Nagito had a hunch of us being in a program (how did he find out again?) and I was the only one whom he told._
  * _If his conjecture was true, then dying wouldn't necessarily mean dying in the real world. If he killed himself and made everyone else fail the trial, everyone would supposedly wake up in the real world._
  * _His insurance against actually dying was his luck. He told me it would never let him die. He told me he tried it already... So, if his conjecture was false, he wouldn't be able to kill himself._
  * _Attempting to kill himself would provide an answer._
  * _He couldn't let everyone else solve the case of his death and needed me on his side (he thought I might be able to solve it)._
  * _Together we committed suicide, the bullet first going through his head so that I would also only die to wake up in the real world or not get hit at all (due to Nagito's luck)._



 

_++++++++ (end of page) ++++++++_

#####  _Other Notes:_

  * _I never learned what my talent was supposed to be. (It wasn't real anyway.)_
  * _For some reason we went by our real names in the Neo. = > Now people recognize me easily..._



 

_++++++++ (end of page) ++++++++_

#####  _My Dream(s)_

  * _I had a dream that seemed to start the same way the third chapter did (the one in which Nagito and I killed ourselves), but it got different later on._
  * _Things that make it different from the third chapter: dead people that are alive (Peko, Mahiru, Sonia), the gun Nagito and I used to commit suicide was under my bed (Nagito was supposed to get it days later), Ibuki and Monokuma disappearing, most actions made by everyone._
  * _In this dream we didn't remember the second and the third chapter (we questioned Chiaki's disappearance yet again, argued and almost broke rules to make Monokuma come). Of course, I thought it was real and didn't remember the actual reality._
  * _My roommate's cat scratched me and it projected into the dream._
  * _A had a second dream that was a continuation of the previous one._
  * _In the dream I woke up to be told my body had been lifeless for over a day. Same for Nagito._
  * _Things escalated into a trial and we ended up handcuffed in pairs._
  * _During the trial, Nagito's actual wound showed itself._



 

Hajime had hoped to see some sort of facial reaction coming from Nagito as he read each point. He, however arrived upon a realization that this man had indeed a serious case of poker face.

A question made him snap into reality: “Can I write in it?”

The brunet needed a second to realize what the white-haired boy had just asked him. “Hm? ...Oh! S-suit yourself.”

A nod.

Nagito leaned sideways for a pencil of his on the bedside table and returned back to produce a slow and long scratching sound followed by multiple shorter scratches. The brunet assumed he scratched something off and wrote something instead. ‘That is the page about my recent dreams... What did he write there?’

There was another sound of a page turning.

“...Are these your questions for me, Hajime?” the icy-orbed lad asked, reading the contents of that next page.

“Wait, aren't you going to show me the diary first?”

“And let you change your questions based on what you learn from it?” Nagito pointed out, cocking his head to the side with a smug, yet innocent-looking grin.

The brunet huffed in response, crossing his arms.

Before starting speaking, the ex-lunatic shifted in the bed, drawing his stretched legs closer to his torso. “I see you want to know what happened to me when I escaped the Neo World Program.” He looked at Hajime for confirmation, getting a stiff nod back.

He continued: “I presume it was similar to your own awakening. A psychologist explained to me everything that happened and he gave me those pills as to keep my memories nice and tidy. Later, as I'm not yet of age, a guardian of mine picked me up. I lived with him for a few days until I started getting terrible stomach aches, which resulted in me collapsing. Intestine cancer. I ended up in a hospital, which I left prematurely after getting in contact with you.”

“I though you din't want to talk about your stitch--”

“I told you only about the tip of the iceberg, Hajime.”

Hajime was horrified, but cued him to go on.

“About your next question whether I am the same person you met in the Neo World Program... Well, yes and no. I feel like my personality is the same, just my worldview seems to have shifted. I don't glorify Ultimate Talents and hope as much as I used to. Also, I no longer get those maniacal moments you could see in the first trial.”

“That's... good,” Hajime said, lacking better words and failing to conceal his relief.

Nagito smiled fondly for a brief moment before growing serious again. “As for the last one... I am afraid I was not deemed worthy of learning the answer to this. I do not know why Peko, Mahiru and Sonia seem to be currently alive. All I can say is this: Don't trust them. You won't remember this the next time you go to sleep, but you still should know.”

“...?”

Hajime did not understand at first and only started to realize after he was handed his diary, which fulfilled his suspicion:

#####  ~~_My Dream(s)_~~ _Chapter No. 4_

.

.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do hope you enjoyed this chapter. I hope there aren't any grammatical errors. I'm fresh out of energy to go check... I'll fix it later if I need to.
> 
> Don't worry, I'll be coming back to the kissing and masturbating incidents later on. I just wanted to give you a try of my style of writing these things. If you find it too naturalistic and graphic, do let me know and I'll add warnings to which parts to skip later on in the story when we get to the 'good parts'.
> 
> By the way, if you notice the word count changing a bit in the following days, it's just me prolonging some older chapters. They seem too short a rushed. Don't worry about it. I won't add there anything major that you'd need to go back to.


	11. Dear Diary, I'm Starting to Get It (Part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hajime and Nagito's conversation having come to an abrupt end, they are taken under police protection provided by this man named Naegi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there, here's the latest chapter. Before you read, be aware that Makoto isn't in this chapter. Hope you enjoy it.
> 
> I'd write something more in here, but I can't think of anything...

“You didn't tell me your guardian was a police officer, Hajime,” Nagito said as he turned his pale face to the boy whilst rotating his shoulders in the process as well. An expression of comprehension formed on his slick features. It had a little bit of regret mixed into it. He went on after a short pause: “It's actually understandable, considering we haven't had any normal conversation that would last longer than just five minutes.”

“...Yeah, we haven't really had any opportunity...” the brunet murmured in response without giving it a deeper thought, basically repeating what Nagito had already said.

It wasn't left unnoticed that Hajime didn't let his eyes unfix from the driver's back of the head as he spoke, but Nagito didn't comment on the pointed look the youngster was sending to his guardian.

The fact, that the officer suddenly showed up in Nagito's room to bring their debate to an premature end to tell them they were being taken under police protection, made Hajime suspicious and irritated. Not only did he want to talk to the other boy some more and now he had to wait, but he also now had to question why they were granted police protection so easily in the first place.

The gruff middle-aged man sitting in the driver's seat was just turning the wheel when his brows brought themselves together. This time it was, once again, only Nagito to get a full view of that expression, him being situated in the passenger's seat. Hajime was in the back and couldn't see, only hear the man's following query: “What do you mean, kid? Weren't you two at your friend's house for some time two days ago? What were you doing if not talking?”

For a second, Hajime forgot about his determination to stare daggers and his eyes went wide, making up a lie. “It was a party night, so it really shouldn't come as a surprise we were partying the whole time.” He couldn't possibly tell him about their real conversation.

There was a short pause of the man thinking, making both nineteen-year-olds consider a trace of Hajime's hesitation in his tone being discerned. “...You can tell me if it escalated into sex, you know. I'm not your parent, so I won't judge. I already know drugs like sedatives were involved, anyway.”

Despite his relief, the brunet still had his eyes make a roll of three hundred and sixty degrees. In comparison, the other late teen shifted in his seat uncomfortably, crossing his long legs.

The older man continued: “But seriously, who even gave you that shit? The doctor said it was some kind of a new drug. Just how did that person get his hands on it? What type of person drugs someone to sleep like that at all? And for what reason?” To emphasize his point, he lifted one of his hands off the wheel and made confused, semi-aggressive gestures with it in the air.

“Yeah, I wonder that, too... What person in their right mind would do such a thing?” Hajime murmured, this time using his eyes to burn holes in Nagito's skull.

“Some sort of a trashy human being would, I suppose,” Nagito uttered almost nonchalantly with an unreadable expression, in spite of the grin there was on his inside.

The brunet's look turned stern.

There was a pause again on the drive's side. “...‘A trashy human being’? That's some smooth choice of words as far as I can tell. Motherfuckers, _that's_ what we call such people... I have to admit, though, that wording does go well with that innocent face.”

‘Oh, how abso-bloody-lutely ironic...’ Hajime thought with a sour pout forming on his lips.

“It's probably for the best you two left so soon. Who knows what would have happened to you. For now we can only wonder if the drug is somehow connected to you being pursued afterwards.”

“Oh, that's right. How is the investigation going?” Nagito asked, being reminded of the incident.

“According to what we've found out so far, it seems to be the work of a bunch of amateurs.”

“That makes sense, considering that they didn't manage to catch us whilst Hajime kept passing out constantly and I was steadily bleeding throughout the whole ordeal...” Nagito pointed out.

Hajime shifted in his seat, calling out: “Hey, wait just a second! You are taking us under police protection just because of some amateurs?”

“I'm just looking out for my ward. Can't you just accept that? Also, Nagito's injury won't be a problem. The only difference will be that instead of sleeping in a hospital bed, he'll get a normal bed. As for his painkillers, I received a substitute for his morphine in the form of pills. It's fine as long as he keeps gobbling them up.”

“What about our studies? We have lectures to attend to regularly. Other than that, I have a shift three times a week at night, including today. How are we supposed to attend all of these when we're under police protection?”

“Easy. I'll just escort you when you need to leave the house. Nagito isn't going to be moving around anytime soon, so it's not a problem for now.”

“... _Fine_ ,” Hajime huffed. “What exactly happened that night after we left Ibuki's anyway? I'm still confused about that.”

“It turns out you were being stalked by three people. Nagito started running when he noticed one of them behind you two. You didn't see anyone when you turned around because that man or woman hid from view right after. It seems that a neighbor's watch dog scared them with his barking and made them duck. Just shows their lack of professional conduct. As for the rest, it's kind of difficult to describe, so I won't bother you with it.”

That was when the older man pulled over into a driveway underneath a roof. Hajime recognized this house, it being his guardian's property and him having spent here two days before leaving for the dormitory. Just like Ibuki's house, this one was also a European-style structure, which wasn't a surprise, really. Most buildings in Japan were destroyed during the Tragedy, so many needed to be built from scratch, various of them influenced by the outside world.

After the motor went silent and the driver used the car's handbrake, he started unbuckling his seat belt. The younger two followed suit, everyone opening the doors by their sides.

“I doubt I own any wheelchairs, so I guess you gotta carry him inside, Hajime,” the man said after he exited the silver car, closing the door.

‘Oh, right,’ the teen thought, internally shrugging his shoulders afterwards.

Hajime, once he closed the door as well, circled the vehicle until he arrived at the passenger's seat. The cabin was exposed on that side of the car, the door being opened. Nagito's feet weren't hidden underneath the dashboard, instead his thighs were directed outside the car. He was still sitting, just his combat shoes were sticking outside.

The pink lips broadened and he simultaneously revealed his white teeth when the brunet came to view.

At that, the other young man thought, his face twisting a bit: ‘...He's really going to enjoy this, isn't he?’ In reaction to this reaction, the smile grew even more apparent in size, which deepened Hajime's own expression as well.

After shaking his head slightly, the brownish-orbed boy's facial features relaxed, turning back to normal. He moved a little bit closer in between the door and Nagito's legs. He took a second to think before bending down to circle one of his arms under the knees and the other around the boy's back.

“Are you sure you won't drop me?” the albino-looking male asked, despite sounding completely calm.

“Who knows?” Hajime replied with a blank expression, but failed to keep this facade, breaking into a smile.

A chuckle.

After being picked up, Nagito closed the door, Hajime having his hands full. Then the legal guardian of the tanner of the two locked the vehicle and entered the house, slowly followed by them.

The white-haired boy spoke up again: “Huh... This reminds me of when i carried you a few days back when we connected to the Neo World Program again. You know, that day when you woke up on the couch...”

Hajime froze to stare at him.

“Haha. What kind of expression is that? Did you think I used telekinesis to transport you back then or what?”

However, the brunet didn't even chuckle this time. He'd just realized how close the two of them would sometimes get, which gave him mixed emotions. He was torn between letting this repeat or keeping away. Was Nagito trustworthy enough? Him being so secretive towards Hajime didn't help much.

Nagito of course noticed this and after his features drooped a bit, he looked away sadly in shame. He had no taste for that suspicious gaze, which made him detest himself for being the one who caused it.

They kept themselves from looking at each other for the entire walk until they arrived inside the house.

“Where should I...?” called Hajime into the living room, assuming that was where the man was.

“Just take him to the room at the end of the hallway. Putting him upstairs would only give him an unnecessary obstacle to get over once he's allowed to walk on his own,” sounded from the kitchen, which was located just beyond the living room.

Not bothering himself with taking both pairs of their shoes off, the brownish green-eyed boy went ahead and very soon reached the above-mentioned door. It was luckily already open, so he didn't need to ask Nagito to do it.

It was a tidy, quite small room with a single bed in the corner.

The process of laying Nagito down onto the bed felt fairly awkward for both of them as they shared indecipherable looks. What made it even worse was the fact that neither of them dared to break that brownish-green-and-gray eye lock. The reflections of tension in their eyes only reinforced this feeling in one another.

Once Hajime leaned back up and stepped back from the side of the bed, Nagito breathed in and seemed to be about to say something.

The brunet held his index finger up in the air to make him halt. He then went to close the door and turned around to find Nagito propped up on his elbows and silent. He gave the impression of having changed his mind.

After a second passed, both of them breathed in to speak up and stopped themselves at the same time, realizing the other wanted to talk as well.

“Well?” Hajime cued, letting Nagito go first.

Sitting up, the pewter-orbed boy asked after a short moment: “...What should I call him?” As these words left his tongue, he pointed in the direction of the kitchen with his head thrusting lightly right.

“...Uh... I don't really address him anything at all. I don't talk to him much and don't even know his first name. Though, his last name is some... Naegi or whatever? Guess you can call him that.”

“Huh,” Nagito let out. “So what did you want to say?”

“Right. About the Neo World Program. I understand that we're going to re-connect again in our sleep this night. Is that right?”

“Yes, it should be the same like as the last time.”

Hajime nodded. He didn't bother asking any more questions related to why or how this worked. He knew well he wouldn't get any answers anyway. “...I better go. My shift starts in a few minutes.” This wasn't just an excuse to wriggle out of this tense environment, he really did have to leave.

Momentarily, Nagito forgot about all of the suspense. His brows knitted together into an expression he wouldn't usually bear. “...Yeah. ...I suppose there's no imminent danger, anyway...”

That look stayed on his face long enough for Hajime to ask: “What is it?”

Nagito shook his head slowly. “Nothing, it's just that... I'm sorry I can't come with you.”

**blink - blink**

“Are you..... being protective of me?” Hajime asked with a fair amount of caution in his deep voice. ‘Just when I thought there wasn't anything he could surprise me with anymore... Or is it just me? Is there something more in it? Seriously, why _would_ he be protective of me?’

The brunet was forced to turn his head from Nagito's sudden thoughtful face, the door handle behind being pushed down. Naegi entered and Hajime got out of the man's way, noticing what he was carrying. It was a glass of water and some sort of a white pill.

Both younger men stayed quiet.

“Here, your painkiller. You'll be consuming these regularly along with your memory pills or whatever they are called,” the man said as he put both items on the wooden bedside table.

“Ah, thank you,” Nagito muttered with a soft smile.

Then, Naegi proceeded to study the two from head to toe. Before they could ask him about it, he said: “And a tip for both of you. In this house there is no painkiller strong enough for what will happen to your asses if you don't take these shoes off. ...Speaking of painkillers, the reason the doctor was willing to give me Nagito's medication is that I'm officially taking over guardianship over him. Make of that as you will.”

++++++++

Not so long after, the brunet male was already outside the house again, heading towards his workplace. Much to his displeasure, he was being accompanied by his legal guardian, despite the desired location being quite literally _around_ the fucking block, in Hajime's exact words.

Being forced to move in to the man's house to be kept under surveillance and Nagito even having his guardian changed... So much cautiousness for no real reason... It was all too fishy. Having an opportunity, he decided to try and pry some information out of him.

“What is the real reason you've assumed legal responsibility for Nagito? Saying that it's just because we were chased a bit the other day is more than just over-reactive,” he pointed out, his head lifted upwards and sideways, looking at the man's face.

The older one kept looking straight, not reciprocating the gesture. “Why do you care? It's not like I adopted him. You still can marry your co-ward if that's your concern. You can legally marry anyone you're not blood-related to.”

“Don't change the subject! This is serious!” he exclaimed, ignoring the comment.

“Oh, marriage _is_ a serious topic. Everyone regrets it with all seriousness.”

Hajime just groaned in frustration, falling behind. With it being so cold outside, he uncrossed his gloveless arms and put his hands deep in his pockets. He was almost looking forward to getting inside the bar.

He didn't know this particular street so well, so he kept looking around to learn about it. There were mostly just regular houses of neighbors, two buildings that looked like tiny groceries, a clothes shop and some sort of a salon. Nothing too eye-catching, just the clothes shop seemed to specialize in underwear, but Hajime didn't have a reason for any sort of interest in that stuff now.

Then, they both passed an uncanny subway entrance.

The greenish-eyed male couldn't look away.

There was something luring, drawing him inside. He couldn't put a finger on what it was. There was nothing irregular about that underground opening, besides it being a bit dim, perhaps because the lighting inside wasn't in the best condition. Pulling his gaze away, he shook his head. ‘I'm just being weird...’

++++++++

“Too bad. I'm not giving you anything containing alcohol as long as you're under twenty,” Hajime said firmly as he wiped a glass goblet to make it shine.

“But, Hajime-chan! That's not fair! You're underage as well, yet you're working as a bartender! Besides, Ibuki has a high alcohol tolerance, so it should be fine! Pretty please?” the ex-Ultimate Musician pleaded while bouncing on a bar stool childishly. She surely wouldn't make the designer of her metal, kinda punk cocktail dress too proud.

While customers could wear whatever their hearts desired, there was a strict dress code for the staff. For example, as not to leave any unsightly finger prints on glasses, Hajime had to wear white silk gloves, which he kept in his locker in the staff room along with his vest when he wasn't currently wearing said pieces of clothing.

All things considered, his workplace wasn't too bad. It almost creeped him out how easily he got used to all the drunk people everywhere, the late working hours and the loud, usually pop or rock music. It all somehow merged into a sort of white noise to him. Frankly, what bothered him most about this job was the uncomfortable clothes he had to wear.

“I'll be turning twenty in one month, so the manager turned a blind eye,” he explained nonchalantly. He was officially just a waiter, he just happened to spend most of his time behind the bar. “Also, I call bullshit on that tolerance of yours. Weren't you drunk enough to vomit two days back?”

“Ibuki was just out of shape...” the girl answered with a pout.

**sigh**

“That's not how that works, Ibuki, but sure, let's go with that... So? What do you want to drink?”

“Bloody Mary!” she exclaimed without thinking, stretching her fist in the air while almost falling off the chair.

‘Well, I should have expected that...’ Bloody Mary was one of the most popular drinks amongst young people solely because of its name. Another one of such a group of drinks was Sex on the Beach... for obvious reasons. It took him a long time to get used to hearing that term each shift and he still wasn't quite there.

The first part of it would make him feel more than just little embarrassed while the latter part made him remember the Neo World Program... which was a terrible combination, especially now that he knew he would go inside the program tonight again.

Eventually shaking his head and coming back to reality, he told her: “...If anything, I can give you Virgin Bloody Mary. That one's alcohol-free.”

The young girl slowly cocked her head to the side and he could only wonder what she was about to say: “...Is virgin blood non-alcoholic?”

The brunet needed to take a second to consider whether she wasn't just kidding him. Later, when she still wasn't laughing to confirm it being a prank, he just gave up and said: “...Yes, virgin blood is non-alcoholic, Ibuki... Well? Do you want it?”

“Yes please!” she exclaimed.

In response, Hajime nodded and got to preparing the drink.

It was quiet for a few seconds before Ibuki spoke up once again: “How is Nagito-chan doing?”

Momentarily, the brownish-eyed boy stopped in his movements. “Nagito? Uh, he seems fine... for someone with a hole in his stomach, that is. We're both under my, well, _our_ guardian's protection now. Don't even bother asking. I have no idea what's happening myself.” His voice got a bitter undertone as he finished the last sentence.

“...Okaay? Ibuki doesn't get it, but she wouldn't even if you were to explain it, anyway. Why did he even start bleeding that night? Did the attacker do something to him or...?”

“Well, it seems his stitches came lose. All I know is that he's undergone some sort of operation and the wound wasn't completely healed that day. Don't know why he was outside the hospital when he clearly needed time to heal. He doesn't want to talk about it, so I don't know shit.” With those words, he handed over the magenta-eyed girl's order.

‘Seriously though, he doesn't want to talk about anything! What is he keeping from me? That Naegi as well! This is so infuriating. I feel like a child whose parents are getting a divorce, but they keep acting normal around the kid despite the fact that he clearly hears them arguing each night!’

Ibuki already got over the initial shock of hearing about Nagito's stitches when she noticed the boy's deep-in-thought gaze that he burrowed deep into the wooden counter. “Hello? Hajime-chan?”

He snapped from his thoughts. “...Sorry. I spaced out, didn't I?”

“Yeah... And you got that weird look again.”

“...Weird look?”

++++++++

‘Can't fall asleep...’ the left-behind youngster thought as he let one of his hands wander in his white mess of hair, pulling on it ever so lightly. ‘Haah. Hajime keeps frowning all the time these days. What's the point of keeping things secret from him when I bring him so much stress in the process, anyway?’ His grip on one strand got tighter, making it almost hurt.

Scowling, he shook his head from side to side. ‘No, it's still worth it.’

He grunted and frowned even deeper when his abdomen skin, which was kept together by the stitch, began to itch real bad. Obviously he couldn't just scratch it. He tried changing his position and rolled onto his right hip, despite knowing this wouldn't help. ‘I'd like to say this was a good move, but I don't get too much surveillance over Hajime with this wound, anyway. If only I could get him handcuffed to me in reality. It would be much more helpful here than there...’

His silvery eyes glued on his phone on the bedside table illuminated by moonlight. He grabbed it, brought it to his face and unlocked it with four swift movements of a finger.

The sight that was offered to him almost bemused him in a way, having almost forgotten about the desktop picture he chose a while back. It, quite unsurprisingly, was a random fan-made picture of Hajime smiling while washing the dishes. The albino-like youngster suspected that the image's focus would have a very different kind of expression if he had to clean such a huge pile of dishes. The picture was still rather heart softening, so he kept it saved, anyway.

After a second, Nagito arrived upon a realization of the trouble that ensued from Hajime possibly finding out. For the time being he decided to change the wallpaper. He smiled smugly at the result. It was a picture of a field of sunflowers. ‘There. I believe 'Hinata' means 'sunflower', doesn't it? I think it does.’

He chuckled and shook his head at his own silliness. Afterwards he, still unable to fall asleep, chose to check the Internet.

His smile soon faded away as later he read an article's title:

  


_The Second Richest Company after the Togami Corporation Declares Bankruptcy!_

  


‘...What the? What is this supposed to mean?’ His eyes narrowed. ‘...They must be up to something. I don't trust this at all. The Remembrance wouldn't just go bankrupt like this.’

With these thoughts, Nagito unknowingly rubbed his left arm as if to comfort himself. He paused when his index finger arrived upon an imperfection, a tiny hard point. Almost like a pinhead. This made him shine a light on the spot just a bit under the shoulder to reveal a circular scab as if somebody had jabbed him with a pin.

++++++++

“Hey Ibuki, have you been having... strange dreams lately, perchance?”

“Hm? Nah, unless you count dreams about eating a mountain of marshmallows and throwing it all up afterwards... What's with the random question? Do _you_ have weird dreams, Hajime-chan?”

“Uh... Well, just some bad dreams... I've been having those recently.”

It wasn't a lie when he told her he had bad dreams. Before he started connecting to the Neo World Program, he often would get nightmares about being shot to the head. You see, while his death in the program wasn't technically real, it felt real at the moment...

It had been a few minutes since Hajime and Ibuki had this conversation. The girl's answer surprised him, but it would have probably had the same effect either way. He didn't understand how she didn't seem to reconnect to the Neo World Program, nor did he know why her avatar randomly disappeared. The only thing was clear: He wouldn't get her involved since she didn't know something was wrong. He decided this was for the best as she wouldn't be much helpful anyway.

‘How ironic. I don't want to tell Ibuki, while at the same time I'm angry with Nagito for doing the same... To be fair, I very clearly _am_ an involved party, unlike Ibuki. To tell the truth, the more I think about it, I don't think he has bad intentions, because if he did... Let's face it, I probably wouldn't be alive. ...Or something similar.’

Ibuki was currently out the main room and was using the toilet, which meant she wouldn't be coming back for at least five minutes at best. We are talking here about an over-populated building filled with people that not only needed to use the bathroom for natural reasons, but also because of their intoxicated states. While she was gone, Hajime managed to serve six customers.

Another young person arrived, sitting on a bar stool directly before Hajime.

“Hi,” the nondescript man said.

“Hello. What can I do for you tonight?” the brunet answered with professionalism in his voice.

“Uh... whiskey! That should be strong enough.”

Hajime didn't know what the man meant by that, but didn't question it out loud. He just went ahead and got to doing what he was paid to do. He, however, soon began to realize what the guy needed a glass of strong booze for. The idea came the second he caught the man ogling him.

‘Don't tell me he's _that_ type of customer...’ the brunet barista feared in his head as he handed over the requested drink. He didn't let his train of thoughts be reflected in face.

He was goddamn well aware of how he was dressed and cursed the one who had designed this dress code. Aside from the white silk gloves mentioned previously, the rest of his attire consisted of a plain gray button-up shirt and a black tie that were partially hidden by a dark green (and almost black) firm vest hugging his hips. The vest was the problem.

It basically glued itself to him so as to accentuate his features, making it a real hindrance in movement. To top it all off and attract more attention, it had an embellishment in the form of a golden thread forming shapes of small decent flowers entwined just like the ones in flower crowns. The lines of flowers copied the staff's proportion lines perfectly. Thankfully, an apron hanging around his waist covered the front side of his almost skintight black pants.

Coming back to reality, the man downed his whiskey as soon as he received it. Hajime prepared himself by repeating a procedure made for instances like the one he was expecting.

The stranger cleared his throat. “So... What would you say if I told you that I live just around the corner?”

“What would you say if I told you that guy right there,” Hajime pointed towards the burly man standing at the entrance, also known as the bouncer, “is my boyfriend?”

It took him a little bit of effort to hold back a smug grin, feeling victorious. A smile coming in response took him aback.

“I'd say that you're the third staff member here to tell me they're dating the bouncer this month. Can't you guys be a bit more creative? I don't mind though. I like their faces when I do something they'd never think I'd do. Just like now.”

It would be a lie to say that the brunet's professional facade didn't break down, because it totally did.

Hajime didn't get to say anything, the man being faster: “So? What do you say?”

As he reconsidered many possibilities of saying 'no', the brunet's face morphed in many layers of disturbance. Finally he went with: “I work here. I can't involve myself with customers.”

“...Oh, so you would say 'yes' if it were past your shift?”

“No,” Hajime answered without hesitating this time. Unconsciously he placed his palms on the counter and while leaning on it, he leaned over and crouched in annoyance.

**sigh**

“What would it take to convince you?” the stranger asked, noticing Hajime's body language. When there was no verbal answer, just a waiting stare, he went ahead and let his hand slide off the bar top, perhaps to reach in his pocket.

Whatever the person was doing, Hajime didn't see. Only when this stranger decided to stand up did he get his prediction confirmed. While seeing his hand moving down was far from climactic, there was something that made Hajime reach the state of alarm. There was a bump on his hip, something jutting underneath his t-shirt.

‘Is that a gun?!’ the brunet's inner voice exclaimed, his eyes going wide.

In a matter of seconds, the fabric was lifted up and the bump was revealed to be something else. A sheathed knife. One second later it became clear that the man was only reaching in his back pocket to take out his wallet. However, the second revelation had little to no comforting effect, especially compared to the first wave of relief that came from there being no gun.

“Here. Keep the change. I'll be coming here often in case you change your mind.”

And with those words, the person departed, leaving behind a more than generous amount of money, the tip making up the majority of it.

Hajime could only stare, but not because of the stranger. He was confused by and almost disappointed in himself, his suspicion of having some sort of phobia of guns being reinforced.

++++++++

He was exhausted when he finally arrived at ‘home’. Despite it being two in the morning, Naegi came to pick him up and unsurprisingly, he headed for his bedroom without saying ‘goodnight’ the second he could. Similarly, Hajime didn't care about formalities either, even almost forgetting to take off his shoes at the entrance.

‘I should check on Nagito...’ he thought as he aimed for the boy's room and later, took a peek to reveal him sleeping peacefully. Hajime didn't believe the boy to have mischief on his mind, he just wanted to check whether everything was in order, which it seemingly was.

After he closed the door silently, he went upstairs. ‘I'll take a quick shower before going to bed. I don't want to dirty the fresh bed sheets the first night. Who knows how long we'll be staying here.’ He sighed, opening the bathroom door. ‘...While each night reconnecting there...’

As he entered the shower, he let water flow out the movable shower head, aiming it to his feet ans setting the right temperature. ‘I wonder. The fact that it didn't end... Did nobody apart from Nagito, Ibuki and me disconnect in the first place or do they reconnect each night as well...? Wait. Byakuya, Teruteru, Peko, Sonia and Mahiru died before Nagito and I did, didn't they? At least _they_ must be out! And how come Ibuki's out? This is so frustrating!’

Speaking of frustration, the brunet jumped and cursed when the forceful water current hit his private region. No matter how weak the sensation was, it scared him yet again and made him lower the stream's force.

After calming down, he continued: ‘The Remembrance didn't send me anything ever since then. ...I doubt they will anytime soon. With Nagito's current attitude I can only wait for something to come to light by itself.’

Leaving the room soon after, the young man failed to notice his reflection in the mirror that showed a tiny dot of dried up blood on his left arm just below the shoulder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know the storyteller is supposed to refer to the characters by their first names, but I didn't want to make up a first name for this Naegi. His last name makes him more recognizable than any first name would.
> 
> About the following chapter, I might add a particular sexual scene I thought of some time ago, but I'm not sure if it will fit and I might leave it for later. Can't really tell yet. I might also start developing Kuzupeko slowly. It all really depends on how much I'm satisfied with the scenes I come up with and how they unfold.


	12. Replacing Our Old Selves

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Both youngsters connect to the Neo World Program again, only this time they somehow maintain access to their knowledge about the outside world. The duo grows aware of a need to communicate secretly out of camera reach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, here's the latest chapter. It's the longest one as of yet. I've finally started developing Fuyuhiko's feelings for Peko and I also put in some mild, awkward sexual content.
> 
> I've made a few changes in the previous chapters, but they aren't all that important. If you want to read about them, keep reading this note, otherwise skip to the actual chapter.
> 
> 1) It was pointed out to me that the cameras in everyone's cabins don't reach into the shower. My change therefore is that Hajime is merely paranoid of being watched when in the bathroom by a hidden camera.
> 
> 2) In the third chapter, Gundham would wake up in an armchair in the previous version. I learned that there were no armchairs in the Mirai Hotel lobby, so now he wakes on a sofa like Hajime does.
> 
> 3) For the sake of consistency, Hajime and Nagito both wake up really tired inside the Neo World Program and are unable to fall asleep like in the real world. Their bodies simply shut down when they wake up in reality. Them disconnecting and falling asleep in beds in the previous chapters is just a lucky coincidence. I forgot to emphasize these facts previously.

“Hey, wasn't it kind of dumb to inject the solution in them both? We don't even know what it's gonna do.”

“Meh. Wouldn't be so worried about that. Aside from possible but very unlikely side effects, the thing's just supposed to stimulate their brains. At worst, they'll just have hard time falling asleep... Though I do have to agree the higher-ups' approach to all of this is kind of messy. No wonder. They have the same goal, yet they can't even agree on how to reach it.”

“But... Why put it in the two in the first place...?”

“Dunno. I guess since it didn't help the remaining seven guys to wake up and disconnect, someone from the above decided to try it on the other two. They reconnect periodically and via a different sort of device that the standard pods, so there's a chance for a different type of response. If there _is_ any positive effect, then they'll need to be injected again, though. This dosage leaves the body pretty soon.”

“...This all is really irresponsible, isn't it...? Actually, I'm pretty sure it's illegal.”

“Of course it is. You're surprised? Why do you think the one with white hair was basically left to die a few weeks ago?” *sigh* “Truth be told, our job would be much easier if he were dead...”

++++++++

#### \-- The Neo World Program; Day No. 4 --

The first thing that Hajime recognized was..... cold?

At first, this fact didn't disturb the boy, his brain being too sleep-benumbed to function well. Instead, he instinctively moved closer to the source of warmth before him, digging himself deeper under the white duvet. Despite knowing he wouldn't be able to fall asleep no matter how sleep-deprived he felt, he still cuddled with the fabric, trying to find the most cozy position.

Giving up, his greenish brown eyes slowly peeled open.

Taking notice of the steel cuff around his wrist and the chain lying flat across the bed sheets, he thought: ‘Oh, right... I'm back in the Neo... Again...... Wait. What?’

Contrary to the recurring morning exhaustion, his body shot up, the duvet sliding off of his shoulders. He shivered at the coldness of the air, but ignored it, his eyes finding and making a lock with the familiar silvery pair of orbs. “Nagito?”

The youngster on the other end of the handcuffs seemed to have been reading a book while sitting on the bed until he was disturbed. When Hajime suddenly got up, making an eye contact as well as a verbal one, there was a brief panicked sparkle in his pewter eyes. He recovered in a second to say with a fake laugh: “My, did you just call me by my first name, _Hinata-kun_? I'd say you must have had a nice dream about me, but that can't be right by definition.” 

‘Does he not--?’ Hajime could only send a confused frown before there was a sudden change in Nagito's own expression. It became serious as the man slowly blinked with both eyes with the tiniest nod. Afterwards, he pointed with his gray orbs to the camera in the upper corner of the room.

Hajime had his own spark glimmer in his eyes, this time an understanding one. Playing along, he then rolled them. “Good morning to you, too, Komaeda,” he uttered with feigned sarcasm.

A smile showed on Nagito's face.

Both ex-Ultimates felt like ventilating their shared confusion, but they realized they'd have to wait to wake up into reality and out of Monokuma's reach. How dangerous was Monokuma currently, despite being just a software? They didn't know. Who was behind these cameras? Was it just Monokuma or someone more? They didn't know either. They only knew that multiple strangers watched the last chapter, so why not this one?

Hajime decided to get up, noting the fact that he was almost snugging to Nagito's thigh with his own. He kicked the duvet with a little effort sideways. His bare legs, that were only covered at the base with the ends of his blue boxers, pulled themselves together as goosebumps started jutting out from the peachy skin. He shivered.

Despite the lack of cushiness and warmth, he kept moving over Nagito's legs to get to the edge of the bed. During this process he wondered how come he'd just woken up on the left side of the bed as opposed to having fallen asleep on the right side where Nagito was just sitting.

Shaking in the cold for the third time, he asked as he let his legs hang over the edge of the bed: “Why is it so damn cold in here? And what time could it be? It's kinda dark.”

While laying the book down onto the prolonged piece of furniture behind him, Nagito answered: “It's actually a few minutes past the morning announcement already.”

“...What?”

The man with white hair pointed towards the window.

There was frost on it. It was quite apparent. On top of it, outside there was snow falling down with the strength akin to a blizzard. The visibility was so low that it wouldn't be a surprise if they had trouble seeing each other out there.

“...How? We are on a tropical island for fuck's sake!” with these words, Hajime put his palms on the surface on the bed to prop himself. ‘Is this weather Monokuma's doing? But why if so...?’

Nagito started suddenly: “I wouldn't do--”

The warning coming too late, Hajime landed on his ass on the bed again. His legs seemed to have the reliability of jelly.

“--that,” the sitting boy finished. “You need to wait a little for your body to 'wake up' properly, Hinata-kun.”

**groan**

After letting his back hit the bed harshly, Hajime pointed out: “...We should go to breakfast, you know. We've all agreed to meet in the Mirai Hotel each morning. The others will be worried.”

“The wind's stronger than it looks like from the inside. I doubt anyone's going to even consider leaving their cabins.”

“.....I guess you're right...”

The brunet let his hand bury itself in his hair, rubbing his head while watching the ceiling. ‘What are we supposed to do now, though? Just pretend everything's normal while being careful about not letting anything relating to reality slip? What about we communicate out of the reach of the cameras? Would that work?’

He frowned a little and summoned the same expression in the boy observing him right now. ‘....I'm no expert, but don't programs usually keep a record of all input data for as long as they are running? Aren't even our thoughts input data as well? Like inaudible speaking? If this is all true, then we might have just revealed everything we know just by thinking about it... to anyone who might have access to the data.’

The greenish orbs unglued from the ceiling to land on Nagito's slick facial features.

“What is it?” the snowy-haired youngster inquired, a concerned look on his lips.

For a second, Hajime's eyes widened and he shook his head. “Nothing. I'm just overthinking things.”

Once again making his companion feel illiterate with the unreadable expression he suddenly bore, Nagito inhaled with his mouth opened. However, his lips soon came together again once he changed his mind.

Suddenly, the wind outside gained on strength and forcefully blew against the building wall, producing this high-pitched howl. It reminded them of how freezing it was. Hajime pulled the end of the duvet on his right and brought it to self. While still lying on the bed, he wrapped it around his right side gracelessly.

Nagito huffed in reaction, a little bit of amusement in his face. “That won't help you much, you know.” With these words, he grabbed his end of the duvet by its hem, lifted it and lowered it to cover Hajime's bare legs. “There.”

Trying his hardest to ignore the lack of proper height of his strange friend looming above, he defensively pulled back as if to bury himself in the mattress. “Y-you do realize _you_ are going to be cold now, right?” Then, he took notice of something. His companion was already wearing his jeans with a presumably clean pair of boxers underneath it. Similarly, his left hand was in his trench coat's sleeve, the right side of the piece of clothing haphazardly thrown over his right shoulder. His handcuffed arm couldn't really be put in a sleeve.

Nagito noticed what Hajime was looking at. “Ah, yes. I already clothed myself properly when you were asleep,” he said with a toothy smile in reaction to Hajime's confused gaze. He then rolled his spine and lifted himself, the brunet using this as an opportunity to sit up.

The paler of the two explained: “I got up a few hours ago and just like in every previous mornings, you wouldn't wake up even if someone were to blow a whistle in your ears. -- Not that I tried, of course. -- Having nothing to do, I intended to retrieve the duvet from my cabin to keep us warmer. However, that would have entailed carrying you all the way, so I decided against it, worried I might drop you in that storm.” As he was talking, he stood up gently and walked over to the doorstep.

“...Huh... So what have you been up to this whole time? ...Aside from dressing yourself and reading?” Hajime asked, trying to hold back his discomfort. ‘Did he not carry me because of the incident yesterday.....? Anyway, he woke up so many hours before me? Could it be because he went to sleep much earlier yesterday, me being at work? I guess it makes sense since we connect in our sleep...’

“Oh, I didn't really read anything. It was too dark and despite knowing it wouldn't wake you up, turning on lights felt just wrong. I only started reading a while ago.” By the door, there was a new batch of Hajime's clothes, which he picked up.

“So you've just been sitting here the whole time...?”

“Pretty much. Yes,” Nagito said with a smile as he lowered the clean clothing and went back to his previous sitting spot on the bed.

Hajime... kinda felt bad, even though this wasn't his fault. “Uh... I'm sorry?”

“It's quite all right, Hinata-kun. I'm actually glad it happened. I kinda...” he paused for a bit, looking sideways, “...needed to give something a proper thought.” His thoughts were indecipherable, but their nature could be deduced from his facial features. His eyelids became stiff and came close together, tiny wrinkles forming by the outside corners of his pewter eyes.

The brunet cocked his head to the side, a frown on his face. He, however, knew he wouldn't be granted any kind of elaboration, especially not here and now.

Nagito's face then lit up, his head moving to face his peer. “Ah! I just remembered! I discovered something in your pillow,” as these words left his vocal cords and rolled off his tongue, his pale fingers grabbed Hajime's pillow from behind his back and spread the pillow's cover open. Afterwards, he took the soft item's corners and shook them in the air up and down until something fell out on the bed.

The brown and green orbs stared at the golden bullets spread out across the white bed sheets. With a sigh, he murmured: “Komaeda, you do realize this is going to be a long story, right?”

++++++++

The explanation of having found a gun underneath his bed and chosen to unload it and hide the bullets took enough time for the storm outside to stop raging. Of course, Nagito already knew about the weapon, having read about it in Hajime's diary the day before, but they couldn't just treat this as water under the bridge with Monokuma watching. Truth be told, Hajime didn't even realize that this was an established fact for Nagito.

Anyway, with the storm gone, the two boys found out, using the e-Handbook map, that people started gathering at the Mirai Hotel, so that's where they went. Upon arrival they found that everyone except for Nekomaru and Akane were situated on the ground floor. Every pair, including Hajime and Nagito, had two duvets with them, all except for Mahiru and Hiyoko who platonically cuddled with her big sister for warmth.

“What are you all waiting for down here in the lobby?” Hajime asked everyone as he headed deeper in the room, forgetting to greet anyone. Nagito said hello very silently, sensing some sort of tension in the building, which wasn't caused by the animosity between Kazuichi and Gundham this time (even though it was there).

There was no need for an answer. Both immediately noticed the reason. The monitor just below the reception sign was lit up. At first it seemed to be showing a list of pictures of the trial ground, but they soon realized it was switching from camera to camera, the recordings looking static because nothing was going on in the court room.

“What the hell...?” Hajime muttered as he sat down on the couch opposite to Gundham and Kazuichi. The chain ringing, Nagito followed suit as they couldn't separate from each other with the handcuffs on. To be sure, aside from these two and the pair of Fuyuhiko and Peko, the other pairs didn't find mutual cooperation in movement so smooth. The difference was that despite most of them getting along well, only Nagito and Peko were willing to follow their partners without choosing directions themselves.

“Good morning, everyone!” Nekomaru exclaimed as he and Akane entered the hotel.

“...Huh? What's everyone doing here? The food's upstairs, you know!” Akane pointed out, one hand on her hip, the other in the air.

This duo noticed the monitor as well and just stared at it, confused. Meanwhile, everyone else stared at the fact that neither of the two had a duvet with them. They were in their everyday clothes (and yes, Akane was wearing her short skirt), sweaty and looking not as cold as expected.

“Hey, what's with all this casualness like nothing's going on? Don't tell me, you two lack the brain function to distinguish between warm and cold?” Hiyoko asked in a mocking tone, her head ever so slightly peeking from under the thick piece of fabric.

Akane halted. “Huh? Wait... Are you talking about that breeze outside?” These words didn't offer Hiyoko any other opportunity for making fun of the girl, so the small pony-tailed girl got another pout and gave up.

Nekomaru laughed. “Man up, will you? All you lot gotta do is to get your blood pumping enough. We have been training ever since we got up, so our bodies warmed up to the temperature of fresh shit! Gahahaha!”

Hajime was listening only halfheartedly, his eyes glued on the monitor. He couldn't find anything worth noting and the fact he was missing something irritated him. ‘Just what is Monokuma trying to show us this time? And why can't he simply tell us?’ Nothing seemed to had changed about the court room ever since they last visited, papers with missing girls' faces on them everywhere and the their photos on the wooden stands still with bloody pink question marks on them. The only notable change was a map of the Jabberwock Island with cross marks all over it, but he didn't know what they meant.

Realizing that the group was still talking about the newcomer duo's carelessness, Hajime turned his face towards them, one of his eyebrows cocked. “You two do realize that once you cool down, it won't be so fine anymore?”

“Fucking idiots... They should get sick just so that they learn,” Fuyuhiko muttered lowly.

“H-hey...”

“What? I didn't say they deserve to _die_ or anything!” the young yakuza barked out. Afterwards, he slouched on his side of the sofa and sighed to self.

Nagito shifted in his seat a bit, opening his mouth. “Now, now... Let's try not to get into an argument, shall we?” As he said that, he put his hands in the air defensively, which caused his duvet to slide down his shoulders all the way to his hips.

With a roll of his eyes, Fuyuhiko retorted: “Says the one who caused all the arguments we've yet faced.”

“I'm sorry for that,” the boy said with a sad smile.

There was no space for expanding on that topic, Peko getting to talk before anyone else: “Hinata-san, Komaeda-san, what about your injuries? Those invisible stitches and that scab. I'm also interested in the fact you two actually made it to breakfast today. Is that sleep phenomenon of yours gone or is this just a coincidence?”

Fuyuhiko moved and leaned forward with interest. “Huh, that's a good question. I've almost forgotten about that.”

Both questioned boys breathed in to start talking, but Nagito restrained himself from doing so and let Hajime explain instead. “Well, there doesn't seem to be any change. N-- Komaeda woke up in the middle of the night, couldn't fall asleep and had to wait 'till the morning for me to ‘come alive’, so to speak. So yeah, it's just a coincidence we didn't sleep in.”

“As for the wounds...” Hajime started as he caressed the thumb base on his right hand, “I can still feel it. Although, it does seem faint as if it started to heal.” Afterwards, he turned his head to the left to non-verbally ask Nagito for confirmation.

The white-haired boy nodded with closed eyes. “Yeah, that's about right. My stitches are palpable as well.”

Once Nagito fell silent, the group of four soon realized that everyone else had been listening to this conversation. Nobody had anything to add and so the entire room remained noiseless for a while, people looking from one to another, once in a while looking at the monitor.

Hajime could only wonder. As his eyes jumped from person to person, he contemplated whether there was anyone in the same position as Nagito and himself. He doubted he'd find out easily, not even able to communicate ideas to Nagito, let alone anyone else.

Deep in thought, Fuyuhiko kept staring forward, his narrow eyes half-lidded. ‘Is it just me... or do these two act suspiciously different towards each other today? They speak the same way, but they give off different... uh, vibes? They seem more comfortable around each other... for some fucking reason. Did something happen overnight between them or...?’

The eyes of Hajime and Fuyuhiko met, but there wasn't an opportunity for them to talk, Monokuma suddenly appearing.

The bear appeared at the foot of the wooden stairs that led to the second floor. “Good morning, my students!” His paws over his mouth, he highlighted his presence by saying: “My, what is everyone doing down here? Are you not hungry? I made something special for you today, you know! It would make me a sad bear if no one were to appreciate it!”

“Now, _that's_ what I like to hear!” Akane shouted and ran towards the stars, Nekomaru tagging along.

“Hey, wait you two!” Fuyuhiko raised his voice and after the duo stopped in their tracks, he turned his attention to the robot. “Don't pretend you haven't been listening, Monokuma! You better spill it now! What's this shit supposed to be?” he exclaimed, pointing at the lit monitor.

“Upupupu, how should I know?” the robotic piece of plush said as he cocked his head to the said to make himself look innocent and cute. Needless to say, Nagito could do that expression better. After a short pause he continued: “Why don't you find out what it is? It _is_ your motive, after all. ...Or not. It's more like a useful thing to have.”

There was a wave of questions and exclaims, which Monokuma had to stop: “Oh, shut up already! I'm not telling you anything else! Now, if you excuse me...” 

“Wait. I have an unrelated inquiry for you before you depart,” the quiet wallflower of the name Gundham Tanaka spoke up. His calm, yet authoritative voice erased the remaining ramblings.

“Yes? What is it, Tanaka-kun?”

“You surely have noticed the clock on the central island to be malfunctioning.”

“Hm? Oh, yeah, that countdown that does what it feels like doing? You guys are interested in _that_? It's probably just some computer error, anyway...”

“Computer error? You mean there's something wrong with the program instructions in the thing?” Kazuichi asked, hands on his hips, accidentally hitting Gundham with his elbow.

“Sure, let's leave it at that!” Monokuma exclaimed as he started laughing for whatever reason, making Hajime furrow his brows. Once he calmed down, the bear said as he started climbing the stairs: “Well? Are you coming?”

Once Monokuma was lost from view, someone muttered: “....Hey, do you guys feel like he's hiding something or...?”

++++++++

At the first glance, there wasn't anything too unusual at the top floor. The food seemed to be the same as usual, served on the same tables, in the same manner... They had no idea what the robotic bear meant by having prepared something special. However, Monokuma went off to somewhere before the students could ask him to explain himself.

It took them a few seconds to discover an electric kettle that already contained a more than sufficient amount of hot water for everyone. The thing that didn't add up as much, however, was the number of mugs left for them.

From her sitting position next to Fuyuhiko, the young yakuza's sharp-eyed protector muttered: “Six mugs. For twelve people. That makes one mug per pair...” Reactions to this fact varied from regular confusion to minor disgust.

Fuyuhiko cursed. “What is that damn ball of plush and wheels up to now? Is he just playing with us to see how we'll react? First something that may or may not be a motive, then this. How annoying.”

Grunting, Nekomaru suggested: “Can't we just use regular glasses instead?”

“I wouldn't recommend it unless you want glass shards everywhere. Most glasses will shatter under high temperatures,” the pink-haired young man explained. It was quite apparent from his face that the notion of sharing a drink with Gundham made him fairly uncomfortable, although they could just take turns and wash it in between.

“My, this is some situation, I have to admit...” Nagito mumbled suddenly, his lips brought close to form a thin line with his brows that dropped below their normal height. The white-haired boy spoke louder when questioning eyes met up with his: “It is relatively easy to see what Monokuma's intentions are. I don't suppose I need to explain this to you that he wants us to grow irritated enough to start arguing until we eventually decide to get rid of these handcuffs. After all, there is a very low possibility of a murder case taking place with things being the way they are now...”

Fuyuhiko scoffed. “What? He wants us to fight over _these mugs_? Don't you think something like this is a bit too pathetic for Monokuma?”

The white-haired boy's frown deepened. “That's what makes me so worried. If my assumptions are correct, then this is just the start, a little bit of playing around before he gets serious......” Realizing something, he thought: ‘Right. Nobody except for me and Hajime knows about the weather change quite possibly being Monokuma's doing as well... How does this connect to the court room, though?’

“If Monokuma's really trying to make us fight, then his plan completely failed, that's for sure...” Akane uttered before taking in a mouthful of meat.

Kazuichi got excited, standing up from his seat. “Yeah! It totally backfired, too, because now we'll be more tolerating of each other, knowing that's the exact opposite of what he wants us to do!” He looked down to his side to have his magenta orbs land on Gundham. “D-don't take this the wrong way! I still don't like you, I just dislike Monokuma even more.”

“Hmph. Whatever,” the Ultimate Breeder let out, his arms crossed over his upper belly.

Before Kazuichi could reply, Mikan pointed out : “D-don't you think it was t-to-too transparent of a trap, though?”

“Hm? What do you mean?”

“U-uh...”

Hajime went ahead and interrupted the timid girl: “Tsumiki might be onto something, actually. I don't think he would do something something so simple and lackluster, either. Frankly... I don't have a clue as to why he set this up.”

After a while, Sonia suggested something: “Perhaps we're looking at it all wrong. This may have been just a test to find out how we'll react to it. You know, test if we'll be willing to share these mugs or not, showing how strong our friendship is. Although, I'm no so sure why. It's not like he hasn't been able to monitor all of our interactions...”

Hajime's blood ran cold all of a sudden, making him stop chewing on a piece of bread he'd just put in his mouth. Not only that, he could sense Nagito's body go stiff as well. The biggest question on both of their minds was whether the robotic piece of plush had suspicions about the two of them. They, of course, couldn't just discuss this possibility, and so they hid their inner fear to the best of their abilities.

++++++++

There were many things in this world that the charismatic, yet socially awkward young man of the name Nagito Komaeda did not understand. Jealousy, however, was one of the few things he knew very well. Before he first awoke from the Neo World Program with the talent of his gone, he would envy and admire these above him and despise, yet still envy these beneath his level for their normal lives. He didn't have any explanation to how his talent seemed to just vanish, but in the end he was too grateful to care.

He thought he'd never be jealous again; freshly full of heath, free to live a boring live... with exception of a few recent clouds on the horizon. So, imagine his shock when he was proven wrong so easily.

Back in the Mirai Hotel restaurant, it was Fuyuhiko's turn to use the cup he and Peko shared, but then the red-eyed girl sneezed. Whether it was for the good or bad, he let her drink from the used cup, mainly to warm her up, but that's not the point.

It was the way he watched her drink what perplexed Nagito. The way his green orbs widened the moment her pink lips touched the edge of the mug. The speed at which light pink blush managed to make an appearance on his upper cheeks. The intensity at which the yakuza seemed to calm down. And lastly, the fact that he failed to notice Nagito watching the whole thing...

“I still can't believe we can take anything we want from here.”

The boy with snow on the roof snapped out of his thinking mode, seeing Hajime seemed to have found what he was looking for.

“Well, yeah, there's no cashier here to pay for this to, so...” he said after actually working out what the brunet had said.

It was already past noon and it wasn't so cold anymore, so they left their duvets in the cabin. The two were currently located at the Rocketpunch Market. Hajime wanted to retrieve a notebook and any type of a writing equipment, but that's about it when it came to Nagito's knowledge. Being who he was, he didn't really mind.

Hajime then stood up from the squatting position, a pencil and a notebook in one of his hands. “Shall we go?” the brunet asked after turning around to face him.

“You don't need to ask, Hinata-kun. Just lead the way and I'll always follow,” was the response followed by a toothy smile with dimples in Nagito's cheeks.

“Is that an indirect implication you'd follow me to the ends of the Earth?” the tanner man conjectured as he rolled his eyes, leading the way anyway and slowly heading for the exit.

“If you mean that I'd blindly follow you anywhere, then no. I'd follow you just to stop you once you were about to step somewhere dangerous.”

“...Right,” Hajime murmured, not knowing what to say or even think.

**craaaaash**

This male duo snapped their heads in the direction of the loud sound that was followed by a scream. It sounded like a bunch of not-so-hefty items falling somewhere in the shop. Of course, it didn't take them more than three seconds to get to the source of the noise, the building being relatively small.

At the scene, they found Kazuichi, Gundham and a large amount of tin cans scattered all over the floor.

“Hmph. That is why you are not supposed to take the ones at the bottom of the pyramid,” Gundham murmured at the mess Kazuichi made.

“Oh, shut up! I wasn't thinking!”

“You never do, do you?”

“Hey, I'm not stupid!”

“I never said so. There is a clear distinction between brain underperformance and brain misuse.”

“Grrr.”

Neither one noticed the arrival of Hajime and Nagito, too preoccupied with their argument. Nagito noted that Gundham was holding in one of his hands what seemed to be hamster food which was probably the reason for the two to be here.

Hajime decided to let them know they weren't alone: “H-hey, you two, didn't you say you'd tolerate each other more?”

Kazuichi's head finally snapped towards them. “What do you mean? This is much better than yesterday!”

“Oh? What happened yesterday?” Nagito spoke with a smile full of expectations. He had a feeling this would be good.

“...Ack...!” Kazuichi's throat let out.

Both the greenish brown and pewter eyes made suspicious looks and jumped to look at Gundham's face. The non-verbally interrogated man just shrugged and eventually answered: “He disapproved of the thought of sharing a bed with me, therefore he spent the night sleeping on the floor. However, in the morning he resolved to crawling in the bed, anyway.”

“I-I went in the bed only because it was frickin' freezing! Of course I didn't want to sleep in the same bed with someone that wears frickin' _transparent_ underwear!”

Nagito didn't get to see Hajime's expression, but he was sure that the boy regretted having heard that. Himself? Despite being taken aback, his face reflected mostly amusement as he chuckled. At this point was Gundham's face hidden underneath his purple scarf, cheeks bright pink with embarrassment.

After sharing dirty looks with the Ultimate Breeder, Kazuichi turned to Hajime, scratching his head. “Sorry 'bout that. Anyway, what are you two up to? We should hang out sometime again.”

Hajime answered a second later: “...Well, we're heading to explore the islands a little more, having been asleep most of the time, you know. How about we meet here about an hour later? At least you'll start getting used to Komaeda.”

The boy's face morphed from neutrality to distress once he realized spending time with Hajime entailed being in close proximity to Nagito as well. This amused the white-haired boy more than it hurt him as he well understood this reaction. A smile remained on his face long after parting ways with the other pair. However, it soon faded when he realized something.

His train of thought started merrily: ‘Heh. No wonder they wanted to change who they're handcuffed to yesterday. They're like an old couple. It doesn't matter, anyway. As Hajime told them, we don't even have the keys. We left them in the court r--... Ah, this might be a problem.’

Not wanting to alert Hajime just yet, he didn't stop walking at this revelation. ‘Does it matter, though? The worst case scenario is people losing their lives, which only leads to waking up with possible psychological effects. I didn't get any, which is probably because I had experienced worse things, anyway. ...I worry about Hajime, however.’ He shook his head. ‘So long as Hajime doesn't die here again, it's fine. I can't have him undergo that pain again. I don't even know what would happen this time.’

They were already on the central island when Hajime suddenly turned around to the following man, confused and very faintly irritated. “Are you seriously not going to ask where we're going?”

“Hm? And you will tell me, Hinata-kun?” Nagito asked, head cocking to the side.

Nagito couldn't help but chuckle when the boy took a second to say: “...I don't know yet.” The ex-lunatic actually didn't want to be told. He wanted Hajime to surprise him.

++++++++

To be sure, he didn't expect to be as surprised as he ended up being. In the end, Hajime lead him into the diner, which was already strange by itself as they had just eaten. He didn't stop there, going further into the establishment until they found themselves in one of the stalls in the restroom. The air was humid, the lightning wasn't so good and water drops could be heard falling out of a faucet every once a while.

Of course, Hajime knew better than to just carelessly mess around in front of the cameras. That included carrying items for no reason, so he made sure to state clearly he'd get a notebook to write down any useful information in it, just in case someone were to screw around with his e-Handbook. It wasn't the best excuse, but it was something. The other part of his attempt at not being too suspicious was not using the item for other purposes too much... or just do it discreetly, which was the reason they were here.

Looking around the small, dirty space of the stall, Nagito murmured: “You sure do have strange tastes, Hinata-kun.” He felt on edge, being enclosed with the other there.

The addressed boy rolled his eyes, closing the stall door. He lifted the hand that contained the previously-retrieved notebook, held it against the door and wrote something, getting Nagito's full attention.

It said: _‘Monokuma shouldn't be able to read this. We can communicate this way.’_

After having a second look around to be unable to find any cameras reaching inside the stall, he turned to face Hajime again, receiving the pencil from him to write down a retort: _‘Huh. This should be helpful.’_ From that moment onward, they kept handing the pencil over to each other.

_‘Do you think Monokuma knows about us?’_ Hajime wrote. 

_‘I'm not convinced he does. I'm starting to think he's just messing around. I mean, mugs? He might be trying to make us paranoid.’_

_‘Well... Maybe? The thing that unnerved us the most was what Sonia suggested, though. It's not like Monokuma has any control over what anyone says, so it was a just matter of chance that we ended up panicking.’_

_‘There's no need to overthink this. There's things we should worry about more.’_

_‘Like why the hell we are more 'aware' all of a sudden?’_

_‘Yeah, that. Let's discuss this later when we don't need to write. It might get long.’_ After a while of hesitation, Nagito wrote another sentence: _‘Anyway, I think I know what the 'motive' or whatever Monokuma called it is. Do you remember seeing the box full of handcuff keys in the footage?’_

Hajime's mouth went slightly agape as his brownish eyes widened and wrote hurriedly. _‘...Shit. I don't recall. We need to check.’_

The brunet didn't waste any more time and with that, he didn't give Nagito the pencil this time. He retrieved the notebook from against the door's hard surface and took both items in his hands, about to leave the stall. A pale hand on his shoulder stopped him dead in his tracks and he snapped towards its owner. “What?”

Nagito let the hand on Hajime's shoulder slide down to the contents of the man's hand, grabbing at them. Hajime got the message and loosened his grip, letting his co-ward lift these things, open the notebook, push it against the plastic wall and write something: _‘Wait. Once we leave, we won't be able to do this again today unless we want to look suspicious. Are you sure there isn't anything else you want to tell me?’_

Hajime scribbled back: _‘I don't think so...? If yes, then it can wait. I don't want to stay here for too long and alert Monokuma, making him think we're up to something funny.’_

The boy cocked his head sideways before he wrote: _‘What do you mean?’_

Accompanied with a roll of his eyes, the sarcastic answer was: _‘Measuring dicks. What do you think it looks like we might be up to? Jokes aside though, we need to act a tiny bit less friendly towards each other.’_

 _‘True, I even forgot about my past obsession over hope...’_ There were a few seconds of delay, Nagito hesitating. He contemplated whether this was even a good idea before suggesting: _‘I have something in mind to bring things on the right track... but you're not going to like it.’_

Hajime got an even deeper, bitter scowl that screamed: ‘Do I ever like your plans, Komaeda?’ He didn't bother writing his cue down and said verbally: “What is it?”

There was a sigh. _‘Fine. I'm going to do something weird now. Either stop me after a few seconds or I'll just stop myself anyway.’_

To the brunet's surprise, Nagito didn't use the pencil and notebook to elaborate, taking them both and putting them in a pocket of his loosely hanging trench coat. He then nervously shifted weight from one of his leg to the other and after meeting the brownish green eyes and noticing the questions shining in them, he realized he was waiting too long for nothing. Slowly, he stepped towards Hajime and once close, he put his palms against the stall door. “K-Komaeda?!”

**thud**

**thud**

**thud**

Nagito was rhythmically banging the door against the door frame and Hajime soon realized what it looked like from the camera's point of view outside the stall. He didn't make the ex-lunatic stop just yet, however, trusting the man just enough to wait for a few more seconds as requested.

Both avoided not only eye contact, but contact in general as well, including physical contact. All that was happening was Nagito pushing against the door while standing before Hajime, yet the fact of what this reminded them of made them freak internally. Luckily, the white-haired boy didn't know about Hajime's attempt at playing with himself the other day.

Trying to maintain some sort of neutral face, their facial muscles went stiff. Tension came despite it just being a ploy and it finished off the rest of their muscles, causing them to clench as well.

Hajime didn't understand the point of this, keeping his gaze fixated on the tips of his sneakers: ‘N-not that I care what Monokuma thinks, but isn't making him think there's something between us the opposite of what we should do? What is Nagito planning this time?’

Realizing it was time, he shouted: “S-stop already!”

Nagito obeyed immediately and he smiled and nodded. In a second he responded loudly as he played along: “I-I'm so sorry, Hinata-kun! I don't know what went over me! You can do anything to me if that makes you feel good. I deserve it.”

Hajime blinked twice. ‘Wait... So he... Did he do this to make a scene, distracting Monokuma from what we were actually doing and establishing his character to have seemingly remained the same...? What?’ His bewilderment only grew when Nagito proceeded to pull out the notebook only to tear out the page containing their conversation and to stuff it into his mouth, eating it.

“Just what are you...?” he mumbled, watching the white-haired boy gulp the thing down quite painfully.

When he was done, Nagito said: “Is there something wrong, Hinata-kun? You're just standing there...”

The brunet took it as a cue to leave the stall and so he did. Too soon did he once again loose consciousness to see the infamous plush bear and to receive some bad news from him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
> 
> I wasn't kidding about these awkward sexual situations in the tags. Then again, I make everything awkward, which is probably why so many potential girlfriends avoid me... XD
> 
> About Nagito and Hajime's talents being gone (since it was mentioned in this chapter again), you don't need to worry about me having no explanation for it. It'll come later.

**Author's Note:**

> Please don't be shy to leave a comment if you can. It really helps.
> 
> I already have the plot well thought-out, but it might take me some time to update if I find a plot hole I didn't know existed. I hope there aren't any...
> 
> Also, a quick reminder: If you have any ship or Komahina scenes requests or anything like that, feel free to share them in the comments section. I'm online most of the time, so I should be answering your questions and requests right away. No, I won't spoil you the plot if that's your request. :P


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